


Dance with the Devil

by chapscher



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Anal Sex, Blasphemy, Demon Shane Madej, Knotting, Light breath play, M/M, Oral Sex, Shane Madej Has a Big Dick, also there's a lot of relationship discussions, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:08:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21952714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chapscher/pseuds/chapscher
Summary: While filming a Worth It holiday special in New York, Ryan becomes convinced that Shane is possessed by a demon. Determined to rescue his friend, Ryan attempts to perform an exorcism right there in the hotel room.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 23
Kudos: 707





	1. Ave Maria

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PerdrixForelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerdrixForelle/gifts).



> This was written for the Shyan Secret Santa exchange of 2018. It is currently 2019. I am not a fast writer but I wasn't about to let this die. I apologize for the year delay. Happy holidays.

The dark walnut columns of the Plaza Hotel lounge were wrapped in evergreen garland and glimmering red and gold ornaments. Countless strands of Christmas lights hung from the ceiling, creating curtains of golden light dividing mingling and dining areas. The dark columns stood at the corners of the room, framing the long dining table and ice sculpture. The air surrounding the table smelt of roasted meat and fine wines. The music from the quartet lifted sweetly through the lounge to meet the crowded table.

Ryan felt out of place. Although nobody showed it, he knew that every single person at that table, save Steven and Andrew, felt out of place. This was more formal than any wedding he ever attended, more than any of the nice anniversary dinners his parents had invited him to. He hesitated before touching any utensil in front of him and had to keep confirming with Rie sitting next to him that “this is my water, right?”

It was all too stiff and formal for him. He was overly conscious of how the fabric of his clothes draped and bunched when he sat or moved at all. A drop of whatever delicious juices the beef had been marinating in had found its way onto his shirt, he was sure of that; so sure, he was afraid to look down and address it. Nobody had said anything, at least. But while everyone else at the table, even those uninitiated to this lifestyle, seemed to have settled down after a few drinks, Ryan was still as rigid and anxious as he was when he first arrived.

Ryan jumped slightly as he felt a slight nudge to his foot. He glanced up from his water and saw Shane, sitting across the table and looking at him curiously for a second before giving him an encouraging smile. Ryan smiled back and nudged Shane’s foot in return.

The two of them had been doing that all evening. Large gatherings made Ryan anxious; he was sure that Shane knew that. And just like the ghost hunts, Shane seemed to have made it his duty to check up on him periodically. Usually, Ryan would appreciate it, but tonight it only seemed to pile onto the stress already prying at him.

“You think this meal has enough gold for him?” Shane asked, his voice carrying, but not enough to get Steven or Andrew’s attention.

Ryan looked down at what was left of his meal. The small puddle of oil and juices left on the plate partially obscured the brilliant gold ring along the edge of the fine china. He thought about the flecks of gold leaf he saw on the ice sculpture and in the champagne.

“Has it got enough truffles?” Shane pressed on.

Ryan forced a smile, remembering the looks he and Shane exchanged when the waiter came by, shaving truffles over Steven’s plate.

Shane grinned. “Has it got enough jackets?”

Ryan wheezed loud enough to attract the attention of a few others near them. He covered his mouth before Steven could hear and shake his head scoldingly at him. Shane laughed, but nobody seemed to notice.

“How long,” Shane started, leaning over his plate conspiratorially. “If we trap him in one of the suites here, how long before he realizes there’s no escape?”

“He’d get suspicious if he ordered room service and nobody came.”

“He can always eat the gold-leaf patterns off the wall.”

Ryan wheezed. “Oh, you think that’s like the Willy Wonka wallpaper for him?”

Shane laughed.

“The snozberries taste like snozberries! The gold tastes like gold!”

“Is that what life’s like for him? All gold is snacks?”

Ryan smiled and shook his head, turning his attention back to his plate as he poked at the last bite of his steak.

“And then we’ll cover him in gold," Shane said. "Not gold-leaf, I mean like the Golden Crown from Game of Thrones, but it’s all of him. He’ll be a little Steven statue.”

The scene from the episode played in Ryan’s mind, Ryan only allowing himself to cast Steven as the king for a brief second before he recoiled from the thought. “Jesus Christ.”

Shane laughed. It had been a while since they talked about the old “feud”. Everyone had even given up pretending that there was any real animosity between the two shows, but for some reason Shane kept bringing it up.

Conversations around the table quieted and all eyes turned to Steven as he stood at the head of the table, glass in his hand. He cleared his throat and began to speak.

“I don’t really know what to say,” he said, scanning over the table and across the beautifully furnished room. “I’ve been wanting to demonstrate banquets for Worth It for a long time and I want to thank you all for joining me for this opportunity. Usually it’s just me and Andrew and Adam and sometimes Annie or Rie, and it took a bit of convincing when I proposed that a larger crowd makes a difference in a dining experience, but it does. And I can’t think of a better group of people to be part of this experiment with. I mean, you guys could make eating hotdogs under an overpass a three-dollar-sign experience.”

Ryan shot Shane a look that was supposed to scold him for bringing up the feud but Shane was too busy reacting to the corniness of the sentiment. Ryan supposed that under normal circumstances he would have joined in, but for some reason Shane’s callous take to what Ryan knew to be Steven’s genuine sentiment pissed him off more than he knew it should.

“And this three-dollar-sign meal was made so much better by being in the company of… well… of three-dollar-sign friends.”

Several people at the table cooed at the sentiment and Shane stifled a laugh. Ryan kicked him under the table; not hard but enough to make him flinch in pain. Shane shot him a glare in return. Ryan was taking this too seriously and, in a sense, Ryan knew it. Steven didn’t need him to leap to his defense, especially since they were all good friends.

But it wasn’t Steven who Ryan was worried about.

“I could go on, but I’ll save that for later. I just spoke with the head waiter and it’ll be a while before dessert. So, in the meantime, feel free to get up and enjoy the music from this fantastic quartet. And, again, thank you for making this all possible.”

There was polite applause and a few people got to their feet to wander around the lounge. Ryan kept his eyes on Shane, who refused to look up at him. There wasn’t really much to say when neither were sorry about what they did. Addressing it would just make things worse, but part of Ryan wanted Shane to fight about it. He wanted to push Shane just a little further. He wanted to take things right up to the moment before everyone around them knew they were in an argument.

There was something he needed to see.

“I wonder how long he’s been planning this,” Ryan thought aloud. “I know he mentioned this last April. Right, Shane?”

Shane shrugged and took out his phone.

“And then for him to put all of us up in this hotel. That’s incredibly generous.”

Shane didn’t acknowledge him as he scrolled down the screen.

“Certainly nothing to laugh at.”

Shane finally looked up, as if he wasn’t sure if he heard what he thought he did.

“At least, I don’t think so.”

Shane pocketed his phone and moved to the edge of his seat. “I need to find the restroom.”

Ryan watched as he got to his feet. They disagreed on the show often, they bickered, but they never got to the point where they actively picked fights with each other. When things got too intense they often separated themselves so they could calm down. Ryan remembered early on in their friendship when they ended a workday after a particularly heated argument about ghosts. He left work genuinely upset, and so did Shane. But the next day Ryan came back to find a bag of popcorn kernels on his desk. Shane said nothing about what happened the day before and Ryan jokingly claimed that Shane felt guilty because he knew ghosts truly were real. But, secretly, Ryan was touched. Nobody had ever done anything like that for him before. He knew in that moment that Shane was someone to keep close.

And that was exactly why he needed to do this.

Shane hadn’t even pushed his chair back in place before Ryan got to his feet and started around the table towards the hallway leading to the restrooms. Shane glared at him again as he headed in the same direction. When they were out of view of the rest of the crowd Ryan grabbed Shane by the arm as he passed.

“Jesus Christ, Ryan. Why are you doing this?”

“I want you to apologize.”

Shane scoffed and pulled away. “He didn’t even see me. What the hell’s going on with you?”

“Why’d you bring up the feud out of nowhere?”

“Because we’re surrounded by gold? I don’t know.” Shane looked around the hallway before sighing and rolling his eyes. “You know, it’s this sort of thing that makes every single person at that table think that we stay together because all we do is argue and have make up sex.”

“This isn’t about them.”

Shane scoffed. “Well, that’s a first.”

Ryan felt his cheeks turn hot. He had been self-conscious of what their coworkers made of their relationship. Sometimes overly self-conscious to the point where it started to annoy Shane. It was all something that Ryan knew he needed to deal with at some point, but intended on putting that off for as long as he could. It was the first time Shane had alluded to it and the rush of shock, anger, frustration, and shame hit him like a tidal wave.

Like a shot, Ryan reached out and grabbed Shane by the wrist as he started to turn away. “Don’t change the subject.”

Shane whipped around and glared down at Ryan. “Oh, will you just shut up and let me take a piss for fuck’s sake?”

And that’s when it happened. It must have lasted for less than half a second, but Ryan saw it. Shane’s eyes, for that brief, brief moment, turned completely black. This was hardly the first time Ryan saw it happen, but it was the first time where he anticipated and waited for it. As soon as it happened the cocktail of emotions that had bombarded Ryan all curdled into fear. But despite the panic that made his blood run cold, Ryan refused to let Shane know he saw what he did… what he somehow knew he would see. In an instant Shane’s eyes were back to normal and Ryan let go of his wrist. There was a parting glare before Shane turned and stepped into the men’s room, leaving Ryan alone in the hallway.

Ryan sat on the King-sized mattress in their room, suitcase open by his side. Apparently the hotel was wanting for rooms with two beds, but he assured Steven that he didn’t mind. He laughed about it with Shane when they checked in the night before. It wasn’t the first time they shared a bed and it wouldn’t be the last. Last night was not unlike any other night that the two of them spent on the road. They ate chips, had a few beers, talked as they watched TV, and passed out at around one. Whatever Steven thought would happen when they were alone on a mattress together didn’t happen.

It never happened.

Ryan rummaged through his luggage and pulled out a bottle of bourbon he planned on sharing with Shane. He unscrewed the top and took a swig of it himself as he stared up at the ceiling, taking a mental inventory of everything he had wanted to do before Shane got back to the room.

Capping the bourbon, Ryan set it down and fell backwards onto the bed. Maybe Shane’s eyes didn’t turn black. Maybe Ryan only thought they did because he was looking for it. The lights were low in that hallway, low enough to play tricks on the eye. It wasn’t enough to make him shrug off his suspicions, but it was enough to make Ryan start to question his conclusions.

Ryan ran his hands over his face and moaned into his palms. He knew he couldn’t just point-blank question Shane about his eyes. Even if they actually did turn black, it’s not like Shane would ever admit it. No, Ryan would have to pretend that he didn’t see anything.

What he had to do was cemented in Ryan’s mind, but exactly how he was going to execute it was yet to be determined. Although he liked having evidence, Ryan hated that it meant that he had to pick a fight in order to get it. Not to mention that it threw a wrench into the rest of Ryan’s plan. Ideally, he would have gotten Shane drunk and then confronted him – Shane too blitzed to see anything except for the drink in his hand and far too out of it to lie. But with Shane upset Ryan doubted that he would be up for drinking with him.

However, what Shane had said did give him an idea. Shane didn’t have to be distracted by drink, he could just be distracted by him.

It wasn’t like Ryan never thought about what it would be like, and he was fairly certain that it had crossed Shane’s mind too. Ryan couldn’t say that he knew exactly what Shane wanted from him, but he had an idea. Based on the way Shane looked at him when they were alone, he had an idea. Based on how the incidental touches and playful winks and “baby”s have gotten more and more frequent. Over the past few weeks their playful flirting that made the office treat them like an old married couple had become strangely earnest.

Ryan sat up. Although arguing for the sake up make up sex is something he would never do, if it’s something that Shane wants enough then maybe Shane could suspend disbelief. Ryan looked at himself in the mirror above the dresser. He was always too anxious to think of himself as sensual and Ryan wasn’t entirely sure if he could be if he needed to. He had partners tell him he’s attractive, which Ryan hoped was enough. It wasn't like this would be the first time he had been with a man, but it would be the first time he would have been the one propositioning.

He had a plan. It wasn’t the most well-prepared plan he ever had, but it was a plan nonetheless. Now all he had to do was make sure that Shane followed it.

Turning his attention back to the suitcase, Ryan took out three candles, a bottle of lube, and a box of condoms. He arranged them on the dresser and set the bourbon down beside them for good measure. He looked down at his work and furrowed his brow. It was forward, far more forward than Ryan had ever been with anyone, but he needed there to be no question about his intentions as soon as Shane stepped into the room. Shane had to know immediately what Ryan wanted from him and, most importantly, he had to be willing to let Ryan take the lead.

Ryan drew in a slow, steady breath as he studied himself in the mirror, combing his fingers through his hair as he tried to calm himself down and steel his nerves for returning to the lounge. He considered his tailored and form-fitting suit, smoothing the fabric and turning to see the strong, defined curve of his back. Although Ryan wasn’t always confident with his body he had to admit that, in that moment, he looked stunning.

“Hell, I’d fuck me.”

Just saying it was enough to make him feel a bit more sure of himself. Ryan opened the bourbon and took another sip, wincing slightly at the way it warmed his throat. After giving the room one final once-over, he took one last deep, calming breath and pocketed the room key. With that he turned out the lights and walked out the door.

The entire hotel was classy, the kind of place that he was sure Steven had picked out for its choice of caviar. Ryan smiled to himself as he remembered how Steven had pretended to bristle at the suggestion, everyone knowing that it wasn't entirely off-base. But still, Ryan was grateful for the invite.

“It's not like we had any choice,” Steven had told him yesterday with a smile. “Everyone who was at the first Christmas party had to come to the second. Just to keep the data consistent.”

Ryan’s heart was racing as he stepped into the elevator, hoping that Shane didn't spontaneously decide to go up to the room looking for him. That would ruin his plan. He wiped his cold, sweaty hands on his trousers as he tried to calm himself down. Any number of things could entirely derail what he had in store. If only he had more time…

Ryan smoothed down his clothes again, examining his reflection in the polished, golden elevator doors. He had an idea of what it took for him to be seductive, but he wasn’t positive if it would work on Shane. Maybe Shane knew him too well to take this at all seriously. But he had to try.

He had to make it believable.

The elevator doors opened to the lobby and Ryan stepped out, nodding at the nearby concierge as he made his way to the sweeping staircase leading to the private lounge that Steven and Andrew had reserved for the party. The quartet’s music spilled out over the lobby as Ryan’s coworkers watched from the balcony in three-piece suits and evening gowns. Ryan tried to just focus on breathing as he flashed his invitation to the attendant and made his way up the steps.

Where the lobby was white marble the lounge was dark wood and red velvet. It was the kind of elegance that let you forget who you are and surrender to decadence. As out of his element as he still was, Ryan hoped that he could make it work to his advantage this time. All he had to do was act like he was a part of it – to act like he was as refined as the baroque sonatas and fine wine that flowed freely in that lounge. He could play high-society just as well as Steven Lim could. He could be elegant.

He wasn’t a damn fool whose heart skipped a beat when he saw Shane standing by the fire in his well-tailored suit.

Nerves, he was sure.

Shane leaned against the mantle, drinking champagne and staring into the flames that licked over wood and stone. He looked so fascinated and entranced by the fire that for a moment Ryan wasn’t even sure if he would be able to get his attention, but as he approached Shane glanced up at him.

“Hey,” Shane said with a nod.

“Hey.” Ryan wanted to say more but stopped, studying Shane’s face and wondering if he needed to give him more time.

“I, um…” Shane started before clearing his throat and looking down at his drink. “I was just talking to Steven. Told him how much we enjoyed dinner. Thanked him again for inviting us. You know.”

Ryan smiled up at Shane and watched him with an expression Ryan was only somewhat conscious of. He had been looking at Shane like that more and more often. He saw it in photos of them. It was a sort of look that radiated fondness. It all went back to Ryan trying to figure out what he felt towards Shane, and he grappled with the knowledge that nobody else brings that specific brand of affection out of him.

“I mean,” Shane continued. “I know you were gonna tell him later. But I let him know now. Just… saying.”

“Did you do that for me?”

Shane looked up from his drink to Ryan, his eyes wider than usual and his brows slightly lifted. “Well… I mean, Steven’s my friend too. I was going to tell him before we left but I wanted him to…” He trailed off. “Yes.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Shane furrowed his brow. “Are you sure?”

Ryan nodded.

“Are we good?”

Another nod. “Yeah, we’re good.” Ryan shifted his focus from Shane’s eyes to his fingers tapping against the champagne flute in his hands. There was no point in putting things off any longer; he had to shift Shane’s focus back to him and away from their argument. “I guess I was anxious earlier. I’m not used to all… this,” he said, gesturing vaguely at the lobby.

Shane nodded.

“But I’m okay now. I calmed down.”

“Where’d you disappear to?” Shane asked as he finished his drink and set it down on the mantle. “When I came out of the bathroom you were gone.”

“Yeah, I just went back to our room for a bit,” he said, leaning into the word “our” as he took a little step closer to Shane. “To settle down and… other things.”

“‘Other things’?”

“I’m fine. I just wanted to be alone for a few minutes. You know me. Crowds.” Ryan shrugged and gave Shane a slight smile. “Well, to be honest, the elevator up was enough time for me to realize I overreacted. So once I got to the room what I suppose I really wanted was some time alone with you.”

“With me?”

He nodded. “But I thought you might appreciate some space first. Besides, you seemed to be enjoying yourself down here and I didn’t want to take you away from the party too early.” Ryan took another step closer to Shane, leaning against the mantle. “You enjoying the party, big boy?”

Ryan could have kicked himself. He had never once meant to call Shane “big boy”; not at the first Christmas party and certainly not now. “Big guy.” That was his affectionate term for Shane; it had been for a while now. But no, lately he had been slipping and calling him “big boy” like they’re in some noir movie where Ryan was determined to play the role of the femme fatale.

Thankfully, Shane only laughed at the nickname, the corners of his eyes marked with a playful crinkle. “You know it, baby.”

“Yeah?”

“But I've been missing you,” Shane said. “If you wanted to get away from the crowd, you should have asked me up earlier. I wouldn't have minded.”

“I don't think I was ready earlier.”

“Ready for what?”

Ryan looked over his shoulder towards the rest of the lounge. Against the curtains of lights the people were shadows, moving slowly and speaking in words lost under soft music. He and Shane were practically alone right then and there, the only ones by the fire as the others followed the drink trays to the other side of the lounge.

“You'll figure it out later if you want to.”

Shane arched an eyebrow and stepped close enough to start to crowd Ryan. “I think I'm interested right now, actually.”

“Yeah?”

Shane reached out and adjusted Ryan's boutonnière, his fingers slipping between the flower petals to open them. “Yeah.”

Ryan felt his cheeks grow hot as Shane's fingertips disappeared inside the flower. Shane’s eyes were half-lidded as he focused on his work, taking his time as he manipulated and spread the petals. Ryan could feel his movements, faint and dexterous. The subtle push of Shane's fingers inside the flower on his lapel made Ryan's heart begin to race. This was more than the nearness of their bodies.

It was a strange intimacy.

Shane's hand lingered by the flower, just barely touching Ryan’s chest. “You keeping secrets from me?”

“More from everyone else.”

Shane's eyes caught the light as he lifted his head and looked around the room. “Just the two of us over here.”

Ryan forced a laugh, hoping that his cheeks weren't too flushed. He reached out, adjusting Shane's tie - although there was nothing he needed to adjust. Shane covered Ryan's hand with his own, surrounding it in his warm palm.

“No time like the present,” he said.

Ryan tightened his grasp on Shane's tie and, before he could second-guess himself, he tugged down hard and crashed their lips together. A muffled moan breathed into Ryan's mouth, startled and soft. The kiss was all lips and teeth; not romantic as much as it was forceful. Possessive.

Ryan pulled back and let go of Shane's tie.

“I… I'm sorry.” Ryan backed away, his face getting warmer and warmer as Shane watched him, curious.

This wasn’t what he wanted. He was already so far off track. There was just something about Shane that had possessed him to act; something that had made Ryan remember every moment of self-restraint he had when they were alone together in the recording booth… something that ordered him to stop holding back. He had done what he had always wanted to do but instead of feeling satisfied he was just afraid. Worse, he was ashamed. This wasn’t like him; he had never done that to anyone before.

He wanted to run. Shane continued to watch him and Ryan’s hands started to shake. “Please,” Ryan said. ”Say something.”

Shane only hummed low in his throat as he cocked his head to the side, eyes lingering on Ryan’s lips. Before Ryan could move any further away Shane cupped the side of his face, fingers resting over his jawline and thumb caressing the curve of his cheek. Ryan let his eyes drift closed as he gently leaned into the touch.

“How much did you drink? You were only gone for about twenty minutes.”

“I’m not drunk.”

“You taste like whiskey.”

“Less than a mouthful.” Ryan opened his eyes and looked back up at Shane, who wasn’t watching him with anger or concern. Just curiosity. “You’ve seen me drunk. I’m not drunk.”

“Just figuring out how you work.” Shane swept his thumb across Ryan’s cheek and down to his full lips. “What you’re after.”

Ryan instinctively closed his eyes and his breaths grew shaky as Shane traced along his lips. It was like Shane was touching Ryan’s memory of the kiss, letting it linger in ways it couldn’t when it was dependent on Ryan’s impulses and cold feet. Shane laughed, although not cruelly.

“Do you want us to be smoochin’, Ryan?” Shane asked, his voice colored by a faux scandalized tone. Ryan could hear a smile tug at the corners of his lips.

Ryan didn’t answer. He didn’t want to nod or do anything that might jostle Shane’s thumb from his lips. Instead he parted them. Just slightly. Just enough for Shane to press past his lips so they could wrap around him.

“There was a time you didn’t even want me to touch you,” Shane continued, the very tip of his thumb brushing against teeth. “Is this what you were afraid of?”

In that moment Ryan forgot where he was. The rest of the world fell away and it was just Shane’s voice and the slow movement of his thumb between his lips. He opened his mouth, the very tip of his tongue sliding past teeth to brush against Shane.

“Do you remember that séance? The sweat on your palms?” Shane slowly, gently pressed his thumb into Ryan’s mouth up to the knuckle. “Was this what you wanted then?”

Shane massaged the side of his thumb against Ryan’s tongue, pressing against the muscle. Ryan pressed back, his mind fogging in a dreamlike haze as he felt Shane dip under and alongside his tongue.

“How do you really kiss, Ryan?”

Shane pulled out of Ryan’s mouth, dragging a trail of saliva over his lips and back to his cheek. Ryan didn’t notice until that moment that his breaths were shallow, panting. He didn’t notice until he heard himself – a trembling whimper of a breath, needy and helpless. His eyes opened for a fraction of a second before drifting closed again. He had seen Shane staring down at him with heavy-lidded eyes, his mouth curled into a gentle smile and his cheeks flushed pink.

Just like the kiss before, Ryan felt his inhibitions fall away, although this time not as chaotically. The small voice inside him wasn’t screaming “I want” like it did before; it didn’t feel like he would unravel if he refused the impulse. But its persistence echoed through his mind and made it feel like every cell in his body ached for Shane. He turned his head slowly, taking the time to breathe. Again, he heard his breath. It was shaking. A whisper. It embarrassed him but not enough to make him want to stop.

He was a damn fool for thinking he could have any control over this.

With a quiet moan Ryan pressed a kiss against Shane’s palm, right under his thumb. His mouth opened as he kissed soft, warm skin, each kiss passionate and slow. He reached up and cradled Shane’s hand in place as he kissed him over and over again. Reverent. The slow, purposeful movements of his lips speaking to his respect. His devotion. The admiration he had for Shane overshadowing his own selfishness that had earlier demanded him to take take take.

This was how he truly felt.

It was why he needed to see this plan through to the end.

“I think I like this way better,” Shane said as he slowly took his hand away, Ryan’s eyes fluttering open. “Don’t you?”

Ryan nodded as he stepped back and looked up into Shane’s eyes. “I didn’t know how to ask.”

“How long have you been thinking about this?”

No. He had already embarrassed himself enough. He shifted focus. “Is this something you even want?” Ryan asked. “Or am I just a curiosity to you?”

“What if I tell you how long I’ve been thinking about this?”

Ryan instinctively bit at his lip. As relieved as he was that Shane wasn’t rejecting him, he didn’t feel any calmer. There was a knowing pleasure tugging at the corners of Shane’s eyes, corrupting his otherwise comforting smile. Despite how supportive Shane had been of Ryan there was something about him that was always quietly sadistic. Something that made Ryan feel like prey.

Ryan nodded.

Shane reached out to lightly take Ryan by the wrist in one hand and cradle the back of his head in the other, making sure he didn’t turn or step further away. He leaned down, his breath ghosting against Ryan’s neck as he slid his fingers through soft strands of black hair. His lips lightly brushed against the shell of Ryan’s ear, the smallest touch a jolt that made his racing heart beat even faster.

“I’ve felt this,” Shane whispered. “Ever since I first saw you afraid.”

Ryan drew in a sharp breath, goosebumps forming along his arms as Shane kept holding him still. In that moment he was acutely aware of Shane’s fingertips on his wrist and behind his ear, resting lightly over his pulse. In any other circumstance he would have pulled away – put some distance between himself and the nefarious side of Shane that would make him say that.

But he had Shane exactly where he wanted him.

All the more an excuse for Ryan not to listen to reason over the depraved part of him that was excited by this. That part of him that made him want to drag Shane’s body against him and beg.

“And, every time after,” Shane continued. “Even now.” A breath. “Especially now.”

Shane pulled away and looked down at Ryan. For a moment it was as if there were no whites to Shane’s eyes – just a deep blackness glistening with the glow of the fire. And in that moment Ryan knew that what he had seen earlier couldn’t have been a trick of the light. It was real. It was deliberate. It disturbed him. In a blink Shane’s eyes were back to normal, now only darkened by desire.

Ryan swallowed hard, trying to get his breath and voice back under him before saying, “We should go to our room.”

“We should.”

Shane winked at Ryan and, with a hand on the small of his back, turned him away from the fire and guided him across the lounge. He let his hand drop as they approached the crowd, but Ryan could still feel him there and his cheeks grew hot once more. People turned as he and Shane walked past and Ryan couldn’t help but to think that, somehow, the crowd knew exactly what they wanted from each other. People will talk.

They already talk.

Ryan followed Shane down the steps and through the lobby to the elevators, walking on with a few people who were on the Worth It camera crew. They nodded to each other and stood in silence, Ryan and Shane in the back of the elevator car. Ryan could only see the backs of the crew’s heads but, just like everyone else, he felt that they knew. They couldn’t see it, but somehow they knew when Shane put his hand on Ryan’s waist and pulled him close. It was as if they could feel, just as he could feel, Shane slide under the hem of his jacket and along his waistband, tugging at his shirt.

Ryan feared he would have to say something as the elevator approached their floor, but before any words could come out Shane stopped. He stepped forward, leading Ryan out of the elevator and down the hall to their room. Ryan hadn’t noticed it before because he was so focused on his plan, but the hotel was eerily quiet in the hallways. It was just his and Shane’s footsteps against the carpeted floor. He wasn’t even sure how he managed to get Shane this far and silently prayed that he was the one manipulating Shane and not the other way around.

He slipped the key card into the door, pressing down on the handle when the indicator light turned green. The end was nearly in sight. He just had to be direct. Forceful, if he had to.

Unlike the lounge, there were rules for the room.

“Leave them off,” Ryan said, taking Shane by the wrist when Shane tried to reach for the light switch.

“I want to see you.”

“And I want to see you but I… hold on.”

The door wasn’t even closed yet when Ryan dragged Shane down into a kiss, his heart skipping a beat when he realized that it was the first time they had kissed properly. As intimate as they had been in front of the fireplace, their lips hadn’t met other than when Ryan had forced Shane. He hated himself for that, even though Shane didn’t seem to have been as offended as Ryan thought he should be. This was worlds better. Shane’s lips were soft and his stubble scratched against Ryan’s smooth cheek. Again he pulled at Ryan’s clothes, hands slipping between their bodies to unbutton Ryan’s suit jacket.

“Hold on,” Ryan breathed, wanting to move but unable to do much more than tilt his head back and moan as Shane kissed along his jawline and down to his neck.

Shane loosened Ryan’s tie and tugged at his shirt collar, kissing lower and over his jugular. He grasped Ryan by the lapels and in one movement shoved the jacket off his shoulders, pinning his arms to his sides as he drew him close. The door was still open and a helpless whine escaped Ryan’s throat as Shane backed him against the wall and nipped at sensitive skin. It had been years since he had been with anyone who was willing to manhandle him like that and he had nearly forgotten how easy it was to just give in to the sensation.

“H-hold on,” Ryan murmured, pulling away just enough so Shane would let go. “Hold on.”

Shane stopped kissing his neck long enough for him to slip out of his grasp, suit jacket falling to the floor in a heap. Breaths heavy and arousal starting to strain against his tight trousers, Ryan made his way to the dresser, his path made clear only by the sliver of light from the hallway. He picked up the lighter he left on top of his suitcase and lit the three candles. The room was cast in orange glow and shadow, Ryan’s face and chest well-lit while the floor was nearly black. The light flickered as Ryan turned back to Shane and motioned him to close the door, anxiousness rising within him as it locked with a soft click.

Shane approached him, smiling faintly as he regarded the candles. “We having a séance tonight, baby?”

“I thought it would be romantic,” Ryan said as he pulled off his tie and let it fall on top of his luggage. “I can be romantic. And ever since the Bellaire house I’ve made sure that my suitcase always has three candles in it.”

Shane laughed low as he stripped out of his own jacket and tie. “What a good ghost hunter you are.” His eyes settled on the bourbon and condoms. “So prepared. You always know exactly what you’re after.”

Ryan let Shane pull him close and kiss him again. One hand ran through his hair as the other unbuttoned his waistcoat and shirt; large, heavy hands feeling across the dip of his collar bones and over his chest. Careful not to jostle the dresser, Ryan backed up against the wall. Even though the room was quite dark, he didn’t want to give Shane a chance to even look at the floor.

That was another rule.

He let his eyes drift closed as Shane took his time caressing down his body. He was sure that Shane could feel the heat from his blush as he massaged his shoulders and felt down his biceps. As muscular as Ryan was, Shane could still wrap his hands around his arms, reminding Ryan that not only was Shane a full head taller than him, but the frame of his body was also significantly larger. Breaths only came as moans now; Ryan letting that small, vocal part of him get lost in sensation.

He wished he didn’t have to do this and that he could just relax and let Shane do what he wanted with him. Like at so many haunted locations, Ryan desperately needed Shane to take control. In this moment he wasn’t scared as much as he was anxious; but still… But still he had to be direct. There would be no letting Shane decide what happens next, and as he felt hands wander lower he knew he had to act.

A heavy gasp breathed into Ryan’s mouth as he groped Shane through his trousers. Ryan hummed, knowing that if they could have been doing this under any other circumstances that he would have said something. He suspected that Shane was well-endowed but he wasn’t sure just how much he should have expected. Shane’s thick cock pressed against the elegant fabric, Ryan rubbing his palm along his length.

“Want you,” Ryan whispered as Shane buried his face in Ryan’s hair and started to grind against his hand. “I want you, Shane.”

“Oh fuck, Ryan.”

Ryan laced his fingers into Shane’s hair and tugged down, bringing their mouths together again as he kept stroking Shane through his clothes. He slipped his tongue into Shane’s warm, wet mouth, Shane’s soft moans humming between them. If this were any other situation Ryan would have just handed him the lube and begged for it – he knew that; and thinking about it made his cock twitch.

Separate yourself from it, Ryan, he thought. You’re almost there.

“Want you,” Ryan repeated, interrupted as Shane kissed him again – deep and rough. He pulled away just enough to speak. “I want you in my mouth.”

Shane nodded and braced himself against the wall as he grasped Ryan by the hair and started to guide him downwards.

“No.” Ryan grabbed Shane by the wrist to keep from being pushed down any further. “On the bed. Sit down.”

Shane nodded and Ryan wrapped his arms around him, kissing him again as he backed him up against the foot of the bed.

Another rule. It had to be right here. He had memorized the exact location and Shane stepped into it perfectly.

The back of Shane’s long legs hit the mattress and he stumbled back, Ryan clinging to him. He straddled Shane’s lap, grinding against his pronounced bulge as he unbuttoned Shane’s shirt and caressed his way downwards until he was groping him again. Shane helped Ryan out of his shirt and waistcoat, gathering the fabric into a bunch and tossing them in the direction of his suitcase. Ryan moaned. It was easy to get lost in Shane’s touch – hands once grasping at clothes now grasping at him. Long fingers pressed against warm skin. He had fantasized about this, and vividly so. It was so much better than he thought it could ever be from anyone.

Focus.

“Lie on your back,” Ryan said, Shane massaging across his shoulders. “Close your eyes. Let me pleasure you.”

“I want to see you, baby.”

“And then I’ll ride you.” His voice was a whisper against Shane’s lips and he could feel him tremble at the suggestion. Ryan sat up, took the lube off the dresser, and pressed the small bottle into Shane’s palm. He kissed him, moaning softly as Shane dragged their bodies together. “You like that, big guy?”

Shane nodded and Ryan all but shoved him down onto the mattress. He put a hand in the middle of Shane’s chest, partially caressing him and partially holding him down. The buckle of Shane’s belt was cool to the touch and opened easily, pulling a needy gasp from Shane. He laced his fingers in Ryan’s hair as Ryan kissed along his hip, Shane guiding him to his throbbing erection. A hiss of a whimper filled the room as Ryan put his mouth on him, hot and needy even though it was still through his clothes. Not taking his mouth off of Shane, Ryan stepped off the bed and knelt down.

Almost there.

He backed away enough to unbutton Shane’s trousers and draw the fly down over his confined and straining cock. Ryan’s eyes flitted up, just to make sure that Shane was still on his back.

He was.

Now. Do it now.

In a single, unflinching movement, Ryan reached under the skirt of the bed, took out, and opened a large canister of salt. He didn’t need light to see where the other ends of the incomplete circle of salt were as he knew them by heart. He could feel Shane’s leg tense and knew Shane sensed that there was something wrong. There was no hiding this from him any longer. The small part of Ryan that was a skeptic begged him to stop – that this was foolishness and if it were all for naught then he may have sabotaged one of the most important relationships in his life. But the rest of him was too overwhelmed with curiosity. It scared him, but he needed to know just as badly as he needed Shane.

Because he needed Shane.

He completed the salt circle.

The air between Ryan and Shane grew unbearably hot and pushed Ryan back with a force unlike anything he had ever felt before. The circle of salt was now a massive pillar of fuchsia light that shot up into the ceiling. It was blinding. Ryan turned away, only to see the three candles shoot roaring fire about two feet into the air. Everything was bright and hot. Ryan shielded his eyes and for an instant he considered bolting out the door, sure that the hotel would burn. But he stopped himself.

You aren’t done. Far from it.

Ryan turned back to the pillar, its light fading. He wasn’t quite sure if he was processing what he was seeing. What he was experiencing. He squinted into the light and it slowly began to turn into what looked like a translucent, shimmering, pink glass.

Shane first appeared as a vague shape, a blurred image that sharpened as the room dimmed. He sat at the edge of the bed, his knees almost touching the glass wall that surrounded him. Wide-eyed, Shane reached out and pressed the palm of his hand against the glass, as if to test if it were really there.

Ryan took a notebook out of his suitcase and approached him, terrified and triumphant.

“You never should have fucked with my friend, demon.”

Shane looked from his hand on the glass to the canister of salt, not entirely empty and spilled a few feet away. He looked to the candles, the notebook, and then, finally, to Ryan. There were no whites to Shane’s eyes. Ryan had seen this before but this time the image was persistent and no matter how many times Ryan tried to blink the sight away it remained.

Shane took a slow, shallow breath, his long fingers scratching against his glass prison.

“You son of a bitch.”


	2. Vade Retro Satana

Aging books and fragile artifacts scattered across the surface of the hotel room’s desk. Ryan’s suitcase sat open beside it, a few more notebooks and assorted crosses piled inside. Shane lay on his back in the middle of the king-sized bed with the bottle of lube still laid beside him - trapped in his glass prison. At least… the demon possessing Shane was trapped. Or the demon pretending to be Shane. Ryan honestly wasn’t sure, and since the demon still looked and moved and talked like Shane, Ryan couldn’t help but to still think of him as the human Shane. Shane’s eyes had gone back to normal not long after he had been imprisoned, so Ryan didn’t even have that to separate the two anymore.

The three candles were still burning, each of them just as tall as they had been when Ryan lit them four hours ago. Ryan stood beside them in the crumpled shirt that Shane had thrown aside, phone in his hands as he tried to adjust the camera’s focus so Shane was clearly visible through the glass. The phone could focus on the pillows, the pile of clothing, the bedspread… but not Shane. Not only was Shane out of focus, but he appeared as nothing more than a digital glitch and black blur.

“Stop fucking with my phone’s camera,” Ryan said, trying to sound stern but only coming off as annoyed. “I know you’re doing something.”

“I can’t fuck with your phone,” Shane said, his voice a sleepy mumble. “I can’t fuck with anything outside the glass.”

“I know you’re doing something.”

“Nope. Just keep trying whatever it is you’re trying to do. I'm sure you'll figure something out eventually.”

Frustrated, Ryan sat down in the desk chair and closed out of the camera application. This wasn’t what he had imagined. What he imagined looked a lot more like The Exorcist: the demon controlling Shane contorting his face and shouting at Ryan in a gravelly voice, thrashing about when Ryan prayed. None of that happened. There was no transformation and no fury. Shane didn’t even try to break the glass. Instead he only tapped against it a few times, as if he were testing that it were really there, before lying down. There was no great monologue, no threats… nothing.

There must have been something that Ryan was missing. He did so much research and was better prepared for this than he had been for any investigation he had ever gone on. Part of it worked. The salt circle worked. The candles worked. The sigil painted in blood and ash onto a linen sheet that he had hidden under the mattress worked (he was still shocked that that etsy shop hadn’t been shut down by the FBI or something). But nothing else seemed to have any effect on Shane. Ryan had printed out and memorized prayers in English and Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic, Greek and Sanskrit. He had recited them and held out holy objects in his outstretched arms, but nothing had happened.

Ryan glared up at Shane and blurted out, “You never even asked to be set free.”

Shane lolled his head to the side, looking at Ryan with tired eyes. “Would you break the salt circle if I did?”

“N-no.”

“Didn’t think so.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Is any emotional reaction too much to ask of you? I thought that you would be at least a little annoyed at being found out and trapped behind glass like a butterfly.”

“And I thought I was gonna get laid tonight, but it turns out that you can’t always get what you want.”

Ryan turned his attention back to his phone. With a quiet and frustrated groan, he pulled up his email and his half-composed letter:

> _Father Thomas,_
> 
> _I know that it's late and you may not read this until morning, but I need your unique expertise. I am currently in NYC with Shane on business and noticed that he has been acting unusual, more so than normal. I've been seeing his eyes turn entirely black for seconds at a time. He is blurry in some pictures I took of him around the city while everything else is in focus. Most importantly, he's told me some unsettling things. When we first got here he kept coming up with ways to kidnap and torture one of our coworkers. I confess that I started coming up with these scenarios a few months ago when this coworker insulted my show, but Shane keeps taking the joke too far and brings it up far more often than I ever did. His ideas are often elaborate and it's clear that he's put a lot of thought into them. And this evening he told me that he enjoys seeing me afraid._
> 
> _You have seen what he's like at haunted locations, Father. I'm afraid that with how much he likes to antagonize the spirits that one of them finally turned against him. It's something powerful, I know that. Shane comes off as reckless on the show, but in reality he's thoughtful, cautious, and overall more mature than most people I know. If something is able to control Shane then I know it's something far stronger than most demons I’ve read about._
> 
> _I know you have warned me about dabbling in the occult but I was desperate for answers and knew that he will never be hostile enough to warrant one of the church’s official investigations. I don’t think he’ll hurt anyone, but if he is possessed then I know that the demon would be hurting him, which is all the reason I need to try to stop it. I researched demons and every ritual associated with them from every religion with a text I could get my hands on. I created a demon trap. It was a hybrid of several beliefs and practices and it was, to my horror, functional._
> 
> _I have been praying. I have the holy water you blessed yourself. I have crosses, old and new. He has reacted to none of it, which would suggest that there is no demon present but yet he is still stuck in the trap. I don’t know what to do. I have attached a picture of him where_

Ryan sighed as he deleted the last line and started writing again.

> _I don’t know what to do and need your guidance._

“If you let me out of here,” Shane said, “We can pick up where we left off. Forget all about this whole demon thing.”

Ryan looked up from his phone. “Excuse me?”

Shane was still on his back, the bottle of lube now in his hands. There was a series of soft pops and clicks as he opened and closed the lid with his thumb. “I’m working on the assumption here that the only reason why I’m still trapped is that, shockingly, waving a cross at me didn’t do anything and you’re embarrassed.”

“I haven’t given up,” Ryan scoffed. “And everything that happened to get you up here was for your benefit, demon. Not mine.”

“You can’t pretend that I didn’t feel the effect it was having on you too,” Shane said, closing the bottle and setting it aside as he sat up and moved to the very edge of the mattress, practically touching the glass. “Doesn’t that sound better than this?”

“Don’t think that you can tempt me. Not now that I know what you are.”

“Like you’re so innocent.”

“It doesn’t matter what I am!” Ryan slammed his phone onto the desk, turned to the suitcase, and grabbed a wooden cross. “I don’t care about what you think of me, I care about what you’re doing to Shane. He may have sworn at you and mocked you and, hell, maybe he even told you to possess him… but he did it because of me. Because I told him that I wanted evidence. He didn’t mean to throw his life away on you.”

Shane backed away from the glass. It was the first real emotion he had given Ryan since his imprisonment, the first genuine expression that wasn’t drenched in sarcasm or apathy. Ryan wanted to believe that Shane looked shocked or offended, but that wasn’t what he saw. He saw pity.

“And I’m not going to let you hurt him any longer.”

Ryan grabbed his phone again and quickly typed:

> _Please call me as soon as you get this message._

He hit “send” and tossed the phone aside, his attention now focused entirely on Shane and the demon in front of him. His grip tightened on the cross as he clutched it close.

“You must have known that you couldn’t hide forever, demon. Sooner or later everyone would have found out. It was only a matter of time before we went to another haunted church. Before we brought Brother Carlos back to give us another exorcism. You would have been exposed in front of everyone, but right here it’s just you and me. And you would rather have me sending you away than Father Thomas or Brother Carlos.”

The look of pity faded into curiosity - or rather, Shane’s playful version of it that made Ryan’s hands begin to sweat as he remembered how comforted that expression used to make him feel.

“I don’t know what they would do with you,” Ryan said. “And, frankly, I don’t care. Probably nothing good. At least, I hope nothing good. It’s what you deserve. But I’m not concerned about that right now. Right now I just want you out of my friend.” He held out his cross and took a step closer to the glass wall that separated them. “I cast you out. By the power of this cross and God’s holy word I cast you out.”

Pity again. Shane never seemed comfortable when Ryan mentioned religion around him. Usually he just got very quiet until Ryan changed the subject. He knew Shane wasn’t religious but he also knew that he was respectful. He wasn’t always silent. Sometimes he would ask questions or mention something Ryan had talked about once before. But in all this he had never looked at Ryan like he was sorry for him because of his beliefs.

It terrified him but still he moved forward, his hand and cross the smallest breadth away from the glass prison. His voice quavered just slightly as he recited the words he had taught himself and knew by heart, “Oh Lord, hasten to our call for help and snatch from ruination and from the clutches of the noonday devil, this human being made in your image and likeness. Strike terror, Lord, into the beast, now laying waste your vineyard, let your mighty hand cast him out of your servant, Shane Alexander Madej, so he may no longer hold captive this person, whom it pleased you to make in your image.”

“Ryan.”

Shane’s voice was calm. Patient. It was the same voice he used in haunted houses whenever Ryan was too afraid to sleep or even close his eyes - a voice laced with the same deep affection that Ryan had always felt in return.

“Don’t mock him!” Ryan shouted, tensing at how loud he could get when he was afraid. “You may speak the way he speaks and move the way he moves and see the world through his eyes, but you are not him. He is better than you, demon. And nothing you do will ever change that. Now get out of him. Leave him!” Ryan stood with his toes inches from the salt circle, looking down at the demon and Shane. He had never been so close. In the four hours he had never dared step this close. “You are a coward, demon. You are a coward to hide in a good, intelligent man who doesn’t know how to fight against something like you. You’re hiding in someone who will do everything he can to suppress you and deny you and rationalize you away. You’re a coward to take him instead of me. And you’re an idiot if you thought that I wouldn’t be able to see you buried away in him… and that I wouldn’t decide to do something about it.”

Ryan took a deep, steadying breath before taking another step forward. He watched as his hand and the cross phased through the glass like it was nothing but light. His hand passed into Shane’s prison. Then his arm. His legs as he climbed onto the bed, Shane backing away.

“You will leave Shane,” Ryan said, his voice forceful but still shaking as he held the cross out between them. “You will leave him and move to me.”

The bed dipped under him as he cornered Shane against the headboard. Ryan reached out and touched the wooden cross to Shane’s chest. He braced himself to feel a shock. To hear a cry of pain before he would have to pin Shane down for the exorcism. But there was nothing. He didn’t even flinch as the wood rested against the bare skin exposed under his unbuttoned shirt.

He looked… worried. It was how Ryan imagined Shane would look if Ryan ever had to comfort him. He has had nightmares about Shane looking at him like this. In his waking hours he always felt so sure that Shane wasn’t afraid of anything. To see him this concerned was to see him exposed. There must be so few who had ever seen this side of him.

Even though Shane hadn’t reacted to the touch of the cross, Ryan held it to Shane’s chest and began to recite a short prayer he had learned in Latin. “Crux sacra sit mihi lux. Non draco sit mihi dux. Vade retro Satana. Numquam suade mihi vana. Sunt mala quae libas. Ipse venena bibas.”

“Ryan, it’s me.”

Shane covered Ryan’s hand with his own and wrapped an arm around him. As soon as Shane touched him Ryan’s racing heart immediately began to steady into a relaxed, even tempo. A sense of calm breathed through him as Shane tangled his fingers into Ryan’s hair, a gentle pressure more than enough to guide him down into Shane’s arms again. But Ryan refused to let that happen, bracing himself against the headboard. He knew he should pull away. This sensation, as beautiful as it was… it couldn’t be human.

“It's just me, baby,” Shane said, his voice soft and insistent. “Nobody’s being possessed. I'm okay. Nobody's hurting me. You can't… you can't cleanse me of myself.”

Ryan shook his head. He looked up and Shane’s eyes were entirely black.

“This is who I am.”

Ryan’s eyes widened as he tore himself from Shane’s grasp and scrambled backwards and off the bed. As soon as he crossed the salt circle and fell to the floor his heart began to race again, as if all the panic in his head had only just reached the rest of his body in a single horrible jolt. He was shaking and felt nauseous as dread filled him like bile.

The room was cold. So much colder than he remembered.

“Ryan?”

Ryan closed his eyes, listening to the bedsprings groan as Shane approached the glass. He didn’t want to look up again. Not yet.

“You’re okay, Ryan,” Shane said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I could never hurt you.”

Without looking back to Shane Ryan got to his feet and turned his attention to the papers that covered the desk. With everything that had happened, with how much research he had done, and with how much time he had spent getting everything together for this single confrontation, he shouldn’t have been surprised. He had known that when he looked at Shane he was seeing a demon, he knew that long before even stepping into the hotel room, but that’s not all he ever saw. A demon wasn’t sitting next to him when he did his research. A demon didn't travel to Knott’s Berry Farm with him. There were so many things about Shane that drew Ryan to him, things that he knew a demon could never be capable of. But he knew what he saw. And, most importantly, he knew what he felt.

Ryan had been in the presence of demons before. He had never seen them but he had felt them. They turn the air heavy and sour, moving in the corner of his eye and watching him as discomfort prickled his skin. It was distinct and almost painful with the memories of terror it brought rushing back. He didn’t feel that with Shane. When Ryan had climbed onto the bed to exorcise him he couldn’t feel that demonic energy, he only felt… he only felt what he did when he was beside Shane. But he had seen Shane’s eyes turn black – the blackness of an empty void. He had heard him confess.

“You’re safe,” Shane said, Ryan still not willing to turn around to face him. “I won’t hurt you, Ryan.”

“Demons lie.”

“I was lying when I didn’t tell you about this before.”

Ryan silently ran his fingertips over the papers on the desk as Shane watched him. That moment replayed in his mind over and over, Shane’s eyes flashing to black. It was so quick, only lasting a few seconds but lingering with him, his thoughts and memories unable to escape.

“I couldn’t tell you about this, Ryan,” Shane said. “You know I couldn’t. You wouldn’t have believed me. Or worse, you would have thought I was mocking you.”

“I don’t believe you,” Ryan answered, more to himself than to Shane.

“I’m glad you don’t,” Shane said. “You shouldn’t. It’s ridiculous. You should be skeptical of me or anyone else who would tell you that.”

“You could have proved yourself earlier.” Ryan’s fingers traced along the weathered leather spine of his family bible. He wasn’t considering its contents as much as he needed something to do with his hands, something to resist the impulse to turn around. “That’s the only way I would have believed you, isn’t it? You could have made the lights flicker. Made a candlestick float down the hallway. Whatever cliché examples of hauntings you like to give.”

“That’s why I couldn’t tell you. I… I didn’t want you to associate me with… with that kind of power. I didn’t want you to see me as anything other than human.”

“Why? Because that would be honest?”

“Because I wanted everything to stay the same!” Shane sighed and Ryan could hear him rest his hand against the glass. “I thought about it, I admit that. When we first started out, I thought about it. It wouldn’t have been this explicit, but you would have known. Before I came to BuzzFeed I liked just doing little things that made people question their own sanity. I liked messing with security cameras and making people drop their phones into mall fountains, just little things like that.”

“And you were looking to expand your audience?”

“At first.”

Ryan nodded slowly. He dragged the scattered papers across the desk, remembering reciting prayers while Shane stared at him blankly. There was nothing written about this. It was just him and Shane, all the books and artifacts Ryan had used to prop himself up falling away as Ryan’s mind settled into this new reality.

“It’s hard to explain,” Shane continued. “Do you know what it’s like to live forever? How quickly time moves? How impermanent everything is? You humans are all mortal and you all talk as if what you have seen and what you have known has been unchanging since the dawn of time. It makes me want to rattle your cage.”

“So… what?” Ryan asked. “So this is why you roll your eyes whenever I talk about ghosts or demons or anything? Just to prove a point and put me in my place?”

“No. You’re different.”

“Bullshit.”

“Don’t you think I want something constant, Ryan? In all the millennia, don’t you think I want something that won’t change? That won’t disappear? It’s why I like math and history: they’ll stay true no matter how much time passes.”

“What’s your point?”

“You aren’t the first person to talk about the existence of ghosts with me,” Shane said. “Not in this human life or the handful of lives that came before it. You know what people usually do?”

“Call you a stubborn asshole?”

“Yes. And then?”

“‘And then’?”

“Then they leave,” Shane finished. “Or just stop talking to me. Or try to ‘save me’ or something. Either way, the conversation is usually over. If it’s not then they come back later, infuriated with me for not believing what they believe. Ryan, you… you’re not like that. No matter how much uncertainty I feed you your beliefs are unchanged, so you don’t… you don’t resent me.” He hesitated. “You never resented me for that, did you? You didn’t regret… me?”

Ryan sat down, still not ready to turn to Shane but able to see his face so clearly in his memory. He remembered having that exact same argument over and over again, on and off camera. There were times when it was casual, almost playful in tone. There were times they had shouted and cursed at each other they were both so frustrated. Ryan again thought back to that time when he had left work angry and came in the next day to find a bag of popcorn kernels waiting for him at his desk. But he was never still upset. He never needed it to forgive Shane.

“Ryan?”

“I don’t resent you,” Ryan said. “I never resented you. Even when you were… insufferable, I didn’t think any less of you.”

“I want that to stay the same,” Shane said. “It’s still me, I’m not any different. Same ol’ Shane Madej I’ve always been.” He tapped at the glass again. “Look at me, Ryan.”

Ryan rubbed at his arms and turned his head, only glancing as far as the very rim of the salt circle. The room was still cold and when he focused Ryan could still feel where Shane had put his arm around him earlier. He remembered the sense of calm that came with it and wondered if that was really the first time he had felt that. Perhaps it was the first to feel it so strongly, but he remembered a similar small touch at the Sallie house. And then again on the way home from the Mission Solano.

“You have… powers,” Ryan finally said. “More than messing with cameras or doing the eye thing. You get in people’s heads, don’t you?”

Shane didn’t answer.

“Just tell me what you’re capable of, Shane.”

“Occasionally I can… influence thoughts.”

“Oh, what a nice way to put it.”

“It’s not like I can control people. You still have free will. I love free will. I’m all about that free will.”

“But what do you do?”

Shane sighed; a small, irritated sound filling the pause before he spoke. “I can control heart rates and make people susceptible to suggestion. All that means is that I can stop panic attacks and I can convince those people with clipboards on the sidewalk to leave me alone.”

“Conversely, that means you can give people panic attacks,” Ryan said. “And you basically told me that you get off on seeing me afraid.”

“I never made you feel afraid, Ryan. You don’t need any help from me with that, you figure out how to be scared well enough on your own.”

“No, well of course not. You only calmed me down and you did it out of the goodness of your heart. You are a literal demon. From Hell. Who has a fear kink and is fully capable of sending someone into cardiac arrest. But no, you only used your powers to make me feel safe. How stupid do you think I am?”

“I only did it when you were so afraid you looked like you were going to cry!”

“What do you care?”

The words were out of Ryan’s mouth before he could think to stop them. They were easy enough to say to a demon when demons only existed in the papers and books he researched. In all the different interpretations of demons, one thing was clear: they were there to hurt the living. Humans were only food to them, feeding on humanity’s anger and fear as they brought as many people back to Hell with them as they could. They were inherently selfish beings who wanted Earth to be as chaotic and hateful as their Hell was.

It was easy enough to say that to a demon… as long as that’s what demons always were. As long as they were never anything more.

Ryan turned in his chair and faced the bed. Shane sat on the very edge of the mattress, resting his head against the glass. His eyes were black and cast down, vacant as he stared at the curve of the wall of his prison. In his hands was the wooden cross that Ryan had tried to exorcise him with. Ryan hadn’t even noticed that he had left it with Shane when he ran away. He got to his feet and approached Shane, not sure what to do when Shane didn’t move to acknowledge him.

“I didn’t mean that,” Ryan said.

Shane didn’t react.

“I didn’t mean that,” he repeated. Ryan reached through the barrier, still only light to him, and gently ran his fingers through Shane’s hair. It was soft and thick and Shane leaned into his touch, letting his eyes drift closed. “I mean, if I ever saw you that scared I would wish I could do something to help you too.”

Shane looked up at Ryan with black eyes, straightening up a little bit. He took Ryan’s hand in his own, his long, slender fingers caressing over the curve of Ryan’s knuckles. His hands were warm, strong, and so much larger than Ryan’s. As Shane held his hand Ryan remembered how he used to get so anxious whenever they touched, afraid to acknowledge that he enjoyed the smallest contact as much as he did.

“That being said…” Ryan pulled his hand away. “I need to know what else you’re hiding from me.”

Shane nodded. “That’s reasonable.”

“Have you ever done anything else to me?”

“A few times,” Shane said, his tone hesitant and testing. Despite the black emptiness of his eyes, it was clear that Shane was examining Ryan’s expression. “Not often. There are times when I just want to argue with you about your spooky little specters and I put the idea in your head: ‘hey, talk to Shane about ghosts.’ You don’t always do it. After all, it’s not like you’re my puppet, it’s just power of suggestion. Sometimes you marinate on it for a while before saying anything. But other times you immediately turn to me and we start that old song and dance again. I stick to the ghost thing because that’s, you know, benign. But today I guess I may have influenced you in another way… just before we came up here.”

Ryan’s eyes widened in realization. “You told me to kiss you?”

“No!” Shane’s voice was flustered as a slight tint colored his cheeks. “All I wanted was for you to stop keeping secrets from me. You were acting strangely and I didn’t feel like waiting around to figure out what was going on.”

“Then what did you tell me to do?”

“‘Stop hiding.’” Shane sighed and carded his fingers through his hair. “If I would have known how you would have reacted then I wouldn’t have suggested it.”

“Oh.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean I… it’s not that I didn’t want you to do it. It’s just something that I wanted you to come to on your own. Now I think I pushed you.”

Ryan gave Shane a half-smile as he sat back down in the desk chair. “You know, everything that followed was because I wanted you to do it. It’s not like I was thinking ‘Hell, well I already went this far. Might as well roll with it.’”

“It was all part of your plan anyway, wasn’t it? It was how you intended to bring me up here.” Shane regarded the bottle of lube that lay in the crumpled sheets. “You had it very well thought-out. I fell for it. I didn’t even notice anything else was going on until it was too late for me.”

“You ‘fell for it,’” Ryan echoed.

“I fell for you.”

Ryan leaned back in his chair and felt his cheeks grow hot. Part of him was afraid that his phone would ring at any moment, Father Thomas calling him and bringing him back to the reality of demons that he once was so sure of. That they lie. That the demon would say this because he knew that it would be exactly what Ryan needed to hear to spare him. And with Father Thomas saying that he just might have believed it. It would have meant more coming from him. But instead Ryan heard it from his own more devout nature. It was the one part of himself left that didn’t want to break the salt circle and join Shane on the bed again.

“Is this what you look like?” Ryan asked, gesturing vaguely at Shane. “As a demon? You just look like a tall, lanky white guy with a big head?”

Shane wheezed, caught off guard but not offended. “I look similar. Maybe taller. More horns.”

“Can I see you?”

Shane leaned against the glass again, his eyes sleepy as he stared out at Ryan. “I don’t want this to change any more than it already has. You don’t need to see.”

“I’d like to,” Ryan said. “I believe that you’re what you are, but I don’t think I’ll fully understand it until I actually see the demon.”

“Some other time. When I don’t have to worry about tearing up the bedsheets of a hotel I would never be able to afford to stay in.”

“You know I need to see it now, Shane. It doesn’t even have to be for very long.” Ryan looked to his suitcase. “You can do it yourself or I have a text that’s supposed to make you do it.”

“No you don’t.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“No you don’t,” Shane repeated. “If you did then you would have used it already.”

“Not if I thought you were a demon possessing Shane instead of just… being you,” Ryan said. “I didn’t want to find out what would happen if I forced a demon to show their true form when they’re hitching a ride in someone.”

Shane laughed. “Did you think that the demon would have just burst out of me like in Alien?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t want to risk it. Then I would have a free demon and a dead Shane and that’s the last thing I want.”

“Well, that’s sweet of you.”

Ryan got to his feet and lifted the notebook out of his suitcase. “How about I try the incantation and if it doesn’t work then… I don’t know. You stay in there until check-out or until Father Thomas calls me back, whatever happens first. And if it does work… I don’t know. We’ll figure out things from there.”

Shane stretched as he leaned against the barrier. “You do realize that this isn’t a Jekyll and Hyde scenario? When I’m in my demon form it’s literally just me with horns. I’m the same person.”

“Well, I’ll be the judge of that.”

Shane laughed. “Okay then. Give it a shot. Just, I wanna point out. The trap was the only thing that worked all night. You’re not exactly batting a thousand.” He hesitated. “I think that’s the phrase I want. Unless batting a thousand is bad, in which case that’s exactly what you’re doing. I don’t know and just realized that I have only heard the term used sarcastically.”

“Maybe only one thing worked tonight,” Ryan said, paging through the notebook and trying not to get distracted by Shane’s sports illiteracy. “But, you know what? It was a pretty damn big thing. And I have a lot of confidence in this one. I took it from similar sources as the trap.”

“You tried exorcizing me in two, maybe five languages?” Shane said. “I know your Greek had the worst pronunciation I have ever heard. At least, I think it was Greek. And you pronounce your Latin like it’s Spanish.”

“Well, you’re about to hear another one.”

“Oh boy. Here we go.”

Ryan picked an amulet out of his suitcase and held it at arm’s length, his notebook held out awkwardly so he could read and get a decent view of Shane at the same time. Shane adjusted himself on the bed, sitting cross-legged and chuckling softly at Ryan’s clumsy positioning.

“Shutup,” Ryan muttered, giving Shane a quick glare, knowing that it only emphasized the look of fondness in his eyes. He had watched them faux-argue on the show and knew that the more frustrated he tried to look the more enamored he appeared.

Shane smiled up at him as he leaned back onto his arms. “Well, get on with it then.”

Ryan shifted his attention to the notebook and took a deep breath. Perhaps he couldn’t speak the other languages very well, and, yes, this he was perhaps the least familiar with. However, its unusual cadence had prompted him to practice it the most.

That and he had to speak it backwards.

“Auov uad auon acnurop ias iicinecu ertac iulunmod asiz.”

“Wait!”

Ryan looked up to see Shane grasping at his left ankle, holding on so tightly that his knuckles were white. His eyes were shut tight and his teeth clenched, each shaking intake of air clearly audible.

“Fuck,” Shane breathed. “Hold on.”

Ryan held still, not sure if he should put the amulet down or not. Not sure if someone like Father Thomas would press on or not. He didn’t even want to speak as he watched Shane slowly pull away from his ankle.

“Hold on,” Shane repeated, his voice steadier. “You’ll get to continue but I need to do something first.”

Shane straightened up, wincing in pain as he moved his left leg out from under him. He tugged at his loosened tie, pulling it out of its knot and tossing it aside. Then he unbuttoned his waistcoat and shirt, glancing up at Ryan in hesitation before shedding them. He took off his shoes and socks, shoving them to the very corner of the bed. Leaning back and careful not to jostle his left ankle any more than he had to, Shane opened his trousers and slid them down his long legs. It wasn’t until then that he turned away from Ryan. He pulled down his boxer briefs and tossed them into the pile with the rest of his clothes. And then he sat there, facing away, entirely undressed and rubbing his ankle. He breathed deep and slowly, his back rising and falling in a languid rhythm.

“Okay,” Shane said. “I’m ready.”

Ryan stared at the curve and shallow line of Shane’s back. His pale skin was marked with a few small, dark moles, making him look older than he was and far weaker than Ryan knew he could be. There was a sort of vulnerability about him that Ryan wasn’t at all used to. And yet he still wanted to grasp onto his body – Ryan remembering the way his pulse raced when he drew Shane close to him; close enough to feel his breath.

“Ryan.”

Ryan focused back on the notebook and continued, “Aiutseca iulusacal iulutnafs ia irotacafenib is irotiulim, irotanihcni.”

Shane made a soft, startled, pained noise and covered his mouth. Two nubs had appeared on his back over his shoulder blades and two more sprouted near where Ryan could see his ribs end. He had pulled his legs up under him, hiding them as much as he could but Ryan could see the thin hair that covered them grow dark and thick.

“Uezenmud iul rolibor roletacap aeratrei is aerasal…”

Shane grabbed a pillow from the headboard and muffled a cry into it as the growths on his back became larger, pulling at his skin. He reached back and felt them, his fingernails long and drawn to a point. His thighs were covered in thick brown fur that crept up along his hips.

“…aeratecrec, aeriutnam…"

Breaths were heavy and muffled by the pillow. The growths on his back continued to press outwards and Ryan could see bones beneath them; long, arm-like bones folded beneath his skin. Shane’s fingernails turned to claws, the tips as black as ink.

“…aetatanas, aecap, ataiv…”

He stretched out his legs as the fur crawled down his foot. The soles of his feet narrowed and elongated, the toes of each foot clustering together and turning to cloven hooves. His goat-like legs flexed outwards, knocking against the shimmering barrier. The appendages continued to grow larger on his back, the bones more and more defined and much longer than Ryan had thought they were a moment ago.

“alim urtnep magur en as iulunmod.”

Shane threw back his head and moaned, his voice strangely muffled despite nothing covering his mouth – almost like he was gagging on something. Although he still faced away from Ryan, Ryan could see the pointed tips of two horns growing out of his scalp. They were the color of aged bone and stretched outwards, branching like a stag’s antlers. His hands, now claws, dug into the pillow. They were black, black with pronounced, golden tendons, color fading halfway up his forearm.

“Auov uad auon acnurop…”

Ryan tightened his grip on the notebook as the temperature of the room suddenly dropped. Every muscle in Ryan’s body tensed with the cold and he watched a faint steam rise from Shane’s skin. His lungs ached with the freezing air, Ryan’s breath a dense cloud in front of him. He watched as the walls and furniture turned white with frost. The bourbon bottle’s ice crystals climbed up the glass and the candles’ brightly burning flames dimmed to small, quavering points of light.

It was almost over.

“ias iicinecu ertac iulunmod asiz.”

Shane’s back burst into flames – the fire reaching high enough to roar as it tore through freezing air. It burned so hot that it hurt Ryan to look at it, let alone stand so close to the bed. He shielded his eyes, his skin stinging from the shock of sudden heat through the cold. The radiating brightness and heat was intense but petered out and started to dim. Ryan lowered his hand and looked up to see two pairs of massive wings sprout from Shane’s back, engulfed in flame. They opened like hawks’ wings with the pinions hitting the glass-like barrier; too large to be contained in such a small prison. The wings beat against the cold air, unable to entirely outstretch and moving like the desperate, helpless wings of a baby bird fallen from the nest. As they moved they fanned the flames, but only initially. After a few seconds the fire died down, revealing black feathers. As they hit the barrier they sent small wisps of hot soot into the room, but no matter how much they shook the soot would never fall off completely.

“Shane?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ryan's "I cast you out" speech from The Exorcist.  
> Backwards Romanian chanting from Eyes Wide Shut.  
> Assorted Latin found on Wikipedia.


	3. Ad Te Omnis Caro Veniet

Ryan stood near the edge of the salt circle, holding his amulet and notebook to his chest. He was trapped between the sub-zero temperature of the room and the oppressive heat that still radiated from inside the column. He watched Shane lie on the mattress and catch his breath, his wings open and pointed directly upwards like drying butterfly wings. Their fire had long died away but a few embers lingered, shining between the feathers and looking like they would never fully extinguish.

“Shane?” Ryan repeated. “Are you alright?”

Shane groaned, still facing away from Ryan as he moved his head slightly, careful not to snag his antlers onto the sheets. His long, goat-like legs tilted oddly as he tried to keep his hooves from catching on the blankets.

“Shane?”

“I… erm…” Shane said, his voice wary but unchanged. “I can’t change back.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Not anymore. I’m just… I’m just getting used to this again.” Shane turned to Ryan once more, his eyes black and cheeks flushed. He gave Ryan the same exhausted but earnest smile he used to give him when they worked out together for some of their earlier videos at BuzzFeed. “I never even realized that I hadn’t tried changing back into this in this lifetime. It went so fast. Several dozen millennia of being just like this and I forget everything in a little over three decades as a human. Humans are weird.”

Ryan watched as Shane folded his wings and sat up, crossing his goat legs awkwardly under him.

“You look cold,” Shane said.

“No shit. It’s fucking freezing out here.”

“Well, there was a lot of fire. A lot of energy. Energy has to come from somewhere.” Shane fanned out his wings as far as he could and moved them in a large, sweeping, pulse. “Is this better?”

Warm air washed over Ryan in a gust, like he was standing over an oven. It wasn’t until then that he realized how much the cold had made him tense up. He closed his eyes as another gust hit him. It rustled the fabric of his clothes and warmed his skin where the cold still stung him.

“Yeah. Better.”

Shane nodded and kept moving his wings, his body rocking back and forth with each pulse. He bit at his lip, the only sound in the room the rustle of his feathers and the soft crack of melting ice. “Is it… is it what you expected?”

“I'm not sure what I expected,” Ryan said. “But your head is finally proportional.”

“Is that all you can say about that?”

“No.” Ryan scanned over Shane’s body, considering what he saw. “Your face… your face didn’t change at all. And I’m grateful for that.”

“It doesn’t disturb you that I don’t look that different?”

Ryan shrugged. “I’m sure if I had the time to really think about it I would be kinda weirded out. You’re not really what I expect when I think ‘demon,’ you know. I mean, you have a bizarre face and that probably should have tipped me off.”

Shane gave that a small laugh and looked down at the rumpled blankets, arranging them around him. “It’s strange and off-putting, I know.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

Shane’s gaze met Ryan’s again and Ryan immediately turned away, his eyes settling on the cross that had fallen off the bed during Shane’s transformation.

“And I shouldn’t have said that,” Ryan said. “I… I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t know why I’m still struggling with this.”

“Because you’re treating it like it’s more complicated than it is,” Shane said. “It’s not like I have been secretly making plans to hurt you or anyone else. There’s no big conspiracy that I’m a cog of. I know you don’t like it, but sometimes it really is Occam’s razor: I’m a demon and I became human because I wanted to live as one for a bit. I don’t wanna destroy humanity. Okay, sometimes I do, but I won’t. You guys have popcorn… and boysenberries.”

“‘Sometimes you do.’”

“Don’t act like you don’t.”

“That’s fair.”

Ryan took a small step forward, the intense heat of Shane’s prison beginning to subside into something reasonable – or, at least, more reasonable than the white frost that covered the walls and ceiling.

“You cold out there?” Shane asked, tilting his head.

“Of course I’m still cold.”

“I thought so.” He smiled. “You’re a little lily of the valley with your California skin there, aren’t you?”

“You’d be cold too.”

“Then let me come out there. Prove it.”

“You know I can’t.”

Shane’s wings slowed their even tempo and folded behind him. He sighed and furrowed his brow in a sad, sympathetic glance. “You have to sometime, Ryan. I know that this isn’t really what you had in mind when you set the demon trap, but you know you can’t exorcise me.”

“No, I know.”

Ryan shivered and he looked over at his phone. Father Thomas didn’t always like talking about the exorcisms he performed, although he did suggest that there were some cases where the possessed didn’t survive. He wondered if among priests there was an emotional detachment between them and whomever they were trying to save. He wondered if Father Thomas had a Shane, so to speak. And if he could ever sacrifice him for the greater good.

Maybe this was why he was the clergyman and why Ryan was not.

Maybe Shane knew that.

“Part of me,” Ryan said, his voice measured. “Part of me is afraid you’ll run.” He looked up at Shane again. “Because you know that I have always thought that if I ever met a demon I would send him back to Hell.”

“The only way to get rid of the demon is to kill me,” Shane said.

“I would never do that.”

“And you can’t save me.”

“No, I know.”

The room was silent again and Ryan looked at the cross on the floor. He knew that Shane was waiting on him. He was waiting for Ryan to tell him what they were to do next, what was going to happen, how long they were going to wait. There weren’t answers for that. Well… there were… perhaps. But they felt wrong. What he had always known to be the “right thing” felt so, horribly, grotesquely wrong. Where could he even turn for some solution to this? He was afraid to pray, fearing that for the first time he would get an answer and it would be the one thing that he could never accept.

He wasn’t sure if it felt worse not being able to pray or not being able to turn to Shane for answers. He was, in every way, trapped between Shane and the once comfortable, familiar world.

And he was alone.

“Ryan?”

Shane had once again moved to the very edge of his prison. He tapped against the glass wall with the tips of his claws, the sound soft and clear, distinct from the melting ice.

Ryan shook his head. “This was a mistake.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” Shane leaned against the barrier. “I’m not about to leave you, Ryan. Whatever we have between us, I don’t want it to change, and I certainly don’t want it to end.”

Ryan rubbed his eyes. “I don’t want it to end either.”

“And it doesn’t have to,” Shane said. “We can go back to L.A., start working on the next season… the next season’s True Crime so you won’t need to worry about having to consult with Father Thomas. We’ll have time to talk about this. And you won’t need the salt or the incantations or candles or anything, I’ll tell you what you need to know. We can make this work.”

It did sound better than any of the answers that his research told him to consider. Shane wasn’t always a reasonable person, but he was fair and he kept his word. Shane was doing what Ryan had been told any demon would do: they would offer easy answers, working to their own benefit. They will sound logical. The most fiendish will be calm, intelligent, and will try to turn the faithful’s faith against them. That’s what he had always been told to watch out for.

It had made sense to him. He had heard plenty of bigotry in his life, but the worst had always come from the people who never raised their voice or hurled slurs at him. They were the people who made him feel that his own hurt outrage was immature and only proved their point. To him, they were the demons he was warned about, and that righteousness would prevail as long as he didn’t let them have any power over him. He wanted to believe that that’s what every priest he spoke to meant when they talked about “demons.”

Maybe some priests did.

But most meant Shane. The literal demon. You should reject the metaphorical demons, of course, but you need to reject the actual demons. It wasn’t something to be taken lightly and it wasn’t something to be questioned. He was told that even hesitating would result in judgment.

He was also told that demons would ask him to betray God and try to seduce him with money and power. Nobody said anything about a demon who would ask for freedom and beg for their friendship to remain unchanged. Offering comfort in return.

“I…” Ryan breathed deep. “This isn’t what I imagined. If I would have known that it was you and nobody else in your head then I never would have done this.” He looked down at the wooden cross, thinking. “I don’t want to choose what will happen so… I’ll just choose to stay like this. With you in there and us in this room. For as long as I possibly can. Until someone takes the choice away from me. It’s a bullshit coward way of doing things but I guess that’s what I am. At least it’s what I am right now.”

“I don’t like change either,” Shane offered.

Ryan smiled faintly and set his notebook and amulet down on the desk. His fingers stung as they brushed against the frozen surface, his golden brown skin flushing red with the cold. With only a moment’s hesitation he picked up his rosary, gripping tighter when the icy wooden surface stung his palm.

“I guess this will be the hill I die on,” Ryan said, turning back to Shane. “Figuratively, literally. Perhaps spiritually too, I don’t know.”

“Ryan?”

“It’s not for you,” Ryan said as he wrapped the rosary beads around his wrist and entwined them in his fingers. “This is all for me. I don’t know what for. Before tonight I would have said it was for protection… but now I just want it with me.”

Shane nodded, backing up slightly as Ryan approached the barrier.

“You told me you can get in my head,” Ryan said. “Do things to my heart. You told me that you’re doing it for my benefit and, honestly, I believe you. But I don’t want that right now. In fact, I want you to promise me that as long as I’m in there with you that you won’t do that to me. That you won’t use any power on me for any reason.”

“I can promise that.”

Ryan nodded. “And I believe you. I’ve been told that it’s dangerous to believe demons, but what I’ve been told doesn’t matter right now. I just need to know that you’re not dangerous and then I’ll let you out. Then we can even try to get back to normal.”

“We can get back to normal.”

Ryan wasn’t sure if he believed that. He had the patience and hopeful curiosity to listen to just about any theory, but there was something bitter about this one – so bitter that he didn’t want to think about it for very long. It was almost as if Shane didn’t believe it himself. He tried not to think about it as he stepped through the barrier, climbing up onto the mattress.

The sheets were warm and the air smelt vaguely of sulfur. Surrounded on all sides by the glimmering barrier Shane’s wings looked even larger than they did from the outside. An ember fell from his feathers, vanishing before hitting the blankets. Shane fanned out his four massive wings, the long limbs curving as they hit the walls of the prison.

“You’re afraid,” Shane said. “You have a look in your eyes. You’re afraid of something, but I’m not sure what. Whatever it is, you haven’t been afraid of it before… at least around me you haven’t.”

“I might be afraid for my soul.” Ryan glanced to Shane’s stag-like antlers and then to the rosary. “I don’t want to be damned for this.”

“You need to find yourself a nicer religion.”

“Shane.”

“Okay, okay.”

Shane took a few pillows and tossed them towards the headboard before leaning back against it himself. His wings folded as much as they could, pressed against the barrier and the mattress as Shane tried to get comfortable. Ryan watched, getting out of the way as Shane’s long legs kicked out from under him.

“Come here,” Shane said, patting his lap. “You still look cold.”

Ryan didn’t climb on top of Shane, but he did join him at the headboard, ducking slightly as Shane spread his wings. He curved them inwards so they created a near-complete dome around the two of them. The wing’s embers were points of light, like stars. They were warm and Ryan sighed in relief as he was surrounded by radiating heat. Shane wrapped an arm around him and rubbed down his back, massaging in slow circles. Ryan leaned into the touch, letting his eyes drift closed as Shane’s hand moved over his cold, tense muscles. Like he did many times that night, Ryan wondered why he held himself back from this over the past few months… years; why he would deny himself this by flinching away at every touch.

He looked up at Shane, who watched him with kind yet empty black eyes.

“They’re always slightly burning,” Ryan said, nodding up at the wings that covered them.

Shane nodded.

“Does it hurt?”

“If it does at all, it’s been millennia since I’ve noticed.”

“So they haven’t always been like this?”

Shane sighed and took Ryan’s hand in his own, his black, claw-like fingers resting over the beads of the rosary. “You’re pointing towards a very long story that I’d rather not get into right now.”

“I’d like to know.”

“I’ve done things,” Shane answered, a statement rather than a confession. “Selfish things. Patient things. Thoughtful things. Careless things. Difficult things. I’ve killed and I’ve fallen in love and each and every one of them had it coming.” He looked down at their intertwined hands. “I don’t want you to worry. I’ll tell you parts of it sometime. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell you the whole thing.”

Ryan rolled the beads between his fingers in thought, closing his eyes as Shane put an arm around him. As paradoxical as it may be, the more Shane surrounded him the safer Ryan felt. He wasn’t sure if he would be as willing to lean into Shane’s touch if there were no wings to cover them. There was something about them that made Ryan want to believe that no sacred force could see him at that moment.

“I’m sorry,” Shane said, letting go of Ryan’s hand. “Are you praying? I’ll be quiet if you are.”

“No. The opposite, really.” He took Shane’s hand again, holding it and turning it slowly in the low light of the room. “I can’t believe that you kept this from me all this time. It’s all real.”

“Now hold on.”

“I knew it.”

“No you didn’t”

“You can’t deny it anymore.”

“Yes I can.”

“Demons. Ghosts. It’s all real. And you know it.”

Shane laughed. “That’s not how that works.”

“Yes it is.”

“I never said anything about ghosts.”

“It was implied.”

“Ghosts aren’t real!”

Ryan smiled up at Shane, not letting go of his hand. “I don’t believe you. I’ll never believe you now.”

“You don’t just wander around on Earth after you die,” Shane said, trying to gesture with the arm he had wrapped around Ryan. “You go straight to where you need to go next. It’s not like you just stumble your way there if you have the time. It’s instantaneous.”

“So what you’re saying,” Ryan tested, “Is that’s what happens when someone dies and it happens with every single person without fail and has been for as long as humans have existed. Not ONE person managed to slip through the cracks and become a ghost.”

“Correct.”

“But ghost stories have existed in every culture we have any information on. It has to be based on something.”

“Pretty much every culture has their own version of the dumpling, that doesn’t mean that there’s some supernatural force at play. There isn’t some dumpling spirit that haunts kitchens.”

“What? That metaphor doesn’t even make sense!”

“Neither does your ‘every culture has ghosts’ argument.”

Ryan shrugged. “I still think that it’s possible for a few people to not go anywhere after they die and you just don’t know about it.”

“And I’m telling you that’s not what happens. I have first-hand knowledge of the afterlife and how this works and you just ignore me.”

“Demons are real, though.”

Shane hesitated. “I’m real, yes.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to tell me that you’re the only demon.”

“I’m not, I’m not. Demons are real, but not everything you think is a demon is a demon. We’ve never encountered one.”

“What about the Sallie house?”

Shane shook his head. “I have no idea what freaked you out about that place, but I assure you that there was nothing there to be frightened of.” He stopped gesturing and rubbed at Ryan’s arm, stroking his bicep with his thumb. “If we ever do encounter one I’ll tell you. Not right away though. After the episode comes out. Maybe before we film the postmortem.”

“Why wait that long?!”

“Gotta keep you on your toes.”

“You son of a bitch.”

Shane pulled Ryan against him, clawed hand rubbing comforting circles along his arm. “I won’t let any of them hurt you if we do meet them. I promise.”

Ryan closed his eyes, turning so he could rest his head on Shane’s shoulder. The once frozen rosary beads warmed between their hands and Ryan silently reminded himself of the prayers. Between it and Shane he felt safe. It had always been that way, and despite everything that’s how it remained.

“We okay, Ryan?” His voice was a whisper against Ryan’s hair. “This is okay, isn’t it?”

“We’re okay.” Ryan nuzzled his cheek against Shane, lightly rubbing against warm skin. “I’m keeping the barrier up because I don’t want to be the guy who let a demon walk free; and I’m in here because… because that demon happens to mean a lot to me.” He looked up at Shane, watching as a blush touched his cheeks and quickly darkened. “So the situation is a disaster and so am I but part of me is very happy with that.”

“And what part would that be.”

“The part that was afraid that I needed to save you. No matter how things turned out, that part is overjoyed that you’re okay.”

Shane smiled, his cheeks still pink. “I don’t think I give you enough credit for how brave you are.”

“What?”

“You would have fought a demon for me,” Shane said. “You don’t know how to fight demons.”

“That’s not brave. That’s stupid,” Ryan said. “It was a very stupid decision.”

“But you did it for me,” Shane clarified. “So it’s brave. And sweet.”

“It’s not that sweet.”

Shane’s hand caressed over Ryan’s shoulder and he kissed his hair. “I think it is.”

Ryan looked up. As much as he wanted to reign in his emotions he couldn’t help but to smile as he saw that Shane’s cheeks were still flushed. He straightened up and got to his knees. “You’re not in my head, are you?”

“No,” Shane said, his wings rustling as he adjusted them to Ryan’s new height. “I kept my word.”

“Because I want to kiss you right now.”

The look of relief and affection in Shane’s black eyes sent an excited, nervous rush through Ryan. Ryan knew he must have been grinning stupidly at Shane, but he didn’t care. He reached out and cradled Shane’s cheek in his hand, his skin warm and the slight stubble scratching against Ryan’s palm.

“If I may?” Ryan continued.

Shane placed a hand on the back of Ryan’s neck and gently dragged him close. Their lips brushed together, the kiss soft and chaste. Ryan felt the sharp tips of Shane’s claws brush over his skin as he pulled him close. As he leaned in towards Shane, Ryan lost his balance and fell forward, only for Shane to catch him in his arms.

“Careful, baby,” Shane whispered as he held Ryan against him. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

Ryan got his knees back under him and kissed Shane again, that same simple kiss. A hand trailed along Ryan’s body, caressing over his back and into the dip of his waist. Although Shane’s claws occasionally snagged on the fabric he didn’t move to tug at Ryan’s clothes. For all the burning embers and sharp edges around them, the kiss was far more adoring than the one they had shared when they first came into the room. Shane’s hand drifted lower, over Ryan’s hip and rested on his thigh. Putting aside his earlier hesitations, Ryan accepted the invitation and straddled Shane’s lap.

The sensation was unusual. Unusual enough for Ryan to break the kiss and sit back for a moment. Shane’s thighs were more muscular than he imagined – the fur that covered them coarse and thick. Sitting there, with Shane between his legs, Ryan saw him as he couldn’t have before. When he looked at Shane from outside the barrier he could only see the demon. When he was close enough for Shane to hold him he could only see what parts of him still looked human. From here he could see his soft, affectionate expression and the way his hair curled around the base of his antlers. He could see the pale, slender column of his neck and his powerful wings, all somehow part of a singular being who looked at Ryan like he hung the moon.

“I should have known better,” Ryan said, “than to think you were anything other than this.”

“We all make mistakes,” Shane answered, his hand on Ryan’s thigh.

Ryan squinted his eyes curiously at Shane’s mouth. It looked like there was something in there that wasn’t before. “Do you have something on your tongue?”

Shane gave Ryan a knowing smile before opening his mouth and exposing dual tongues. They were slightly longer than a human tongue and not as thick, the two resting side by side. Shane moved them independently for a moment before closing his mouth.

Ryan nodded, not sure what to make of that. “Interesting.”

“You don’t know interesting yet.”

Ryan wheezed a laugh. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“I think we’re right on schedule.”

Ryan let Shane drag their bodies together and closed his eyes as Shane kissed along his jaw and down his neck. Ryan reached up and put a hand on the antler branch closest to his face, his fingertips pressing into the long, shallow grooves of the bone. One arm was around him. A clawed hand lightly scratched his shoulder as Shane pulled Ryan’s collar aside. The two warm, wet tips of Shane’s tongues slid over Ryan’s skin, followed by lips and a suggestion of teeth. Ryan didn’t even know he was moaning until he felt a breath of Shane’s laughter against him.

“Ah,” Ryan stammered as his cheeks grew hot and he instinctively tightened his grip on his rosary. “I…”

“I’m flattered,” Shane said against the shell of Ryan’s ear.

Ryan was speechless as Shane gently grasped him by the hair and turned his head. He brought their lips together, Ryan weak as Shane opened his mouth into the kiss. Ryan’s fingers pressed down against the rosary beads hard enough for them to leave imprints on his skin. Hard enough to hurt. And with this pain dull against his hand, Ryan opened his mouth.

The two tongues slipped past Ryan’s lips and over the edge of his teeth. They were warm and slick over Ryan’s tongue, moving slowly in his mouth as Ryan closed his eyes and hummed softly into the kiss. Shane let go of his hair and cradled a hand against the back of his head. Ryan draped his arms over Shane’s shoulders, his hands brushing against soft feathers, still hot with embers.

The kiss was dizzying. The tongues moved in Ryan’s mouth in a slow pulse and hypnotic rhythm. Shane wrapped an arm around Ryan’s waist and drew him closer. His large, warm hands caressed down the accented curve of Ryan’s back. He pulled at Ryan’s shirt and slipped his clawed fingers beneath it, stroking his sensitive skin and trailing over his spine.

Another moan. The shy tingling at Ryan’s cheeks intensified as each touch reminded him of how desperately he had wanted Shane. How many times he had searched and waited for moments where they could be alone in hopes that they could have even a fraction of this. It embarrassed him to think of how many late nights he wanted to end with empty, drunken kisses, just so he could have some idea of what Shane could be like.

There was much about Shane in that moment that Ryan never could have imagined.

Ryan ended the kiss, breathless and blushing. His cock twitched and he pulled away, not sure if he wanted Shane to know just how much of an effect he was having on him.

“You okay, baby?” Shane asked, his hand still under Ryan’s shirt and now running along his side. “Too much?”

Ryan shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “No? No. I’m fine.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Ryan answered, his voice cracking as Shane moved between his legs. It was just a small shift of weight on Shane’s lap, but the smallest movement was enough to remind Ryan of the muscle. “I guess I… I never thought I would enjoy kissing a demon as much as I do.”

“Yeah, that can really sneak up on you,” Shane said with a playful smile as he laced his clawed fingertips in Ryan’s hair. “I don’t think they talked about that in Sunday school.”

Ryan wheezed and shook his head. “No. No facts of life with demons. Or maybe I was sick that Sunday. I don’t know.”

“Well, let’s make it up as we go along.”

Ryan gasped as Shane pulled him close again. His arousal pressed against Shane’s abdomen as Shane kissed down his neck. Ryan held tight onto the rosary, trying to cling to it and Shane at the same time. He buried his face in Shane’s neck, moaning as Shane kissed along his shoulder. Teeth scraped against skin and Shane bit down hard enough to leave a bruise. His claws dragged down Ryan’s back and Ryan drew in a sharp breath as he felt raised red marks trail after them. He arched away from the pain and into Shane’s chest, tightening his grip as that same clawed hand rubbed soothingly over his skin.

“I don’t think I should be enjoying this as much as I am,” Ryan said, his voice tight as he balanced between dull pain and warm pleasure. “I’m sure there’s something dangerous here.”

“There is but I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Ryan wheezed a laugh despite himself, loving how he could feel Shane smile in response. “Yeah, my big bad demon.”

Shane slipped his hands between them and massaged Ryan’s chest through thin fabric, groping muscle and brushing over stiff nipples. A wanting shiver washed over Ryan and he could feel the blush in his cheeks. Ryan turned his head and their lips met again in harmonious moans. A clawed hand unfastened one of the buttons on Ryan’s shirt and Ryan caressed Shane’s bare back and shoulders, hating how touch-starved he was. Earlier that night he had wished that he could have enjoyed Shane as much as he wanted to, and now was his chance.

It wasn’t long before Ryan’s shirt fell open and Shane wrapped his arms around him, his dark hands sliding under the hanging fabric. Ryan gasped as Shane held him by the waist, caressing the gently sloping curves of his body. Ryan broke their kiss, arched his back, and moaned low and rough. He trailed his fingers through Shane’s hair and gyrated his hips, grinding into Shane’s lap. Shane hummed contentedly and thrust up into Ryan’s movements as he tightened his grip. Ryan’s breaths came in soft moans and gasps as he kept moving like a horny teenager, desperate for friction against his stiff cock. He didn’t stop until he felt something hard press against his ass. That was when he grabbed Shane by the wrists and guided his hands down to his belt.

“I want you,” Ryan murmured as he pressed his lips against Shane. It was a quick, breathless kiss before he pulled back and continued. “I want what you wanted to give me when I brought you here.”

“I think I want that too, baby,” Shane said, unfastening Ryan’s belt and groping his cock through his slacks. “I want you on your back.”

Instead of falling to the mattress Ryan wrapped his arms around Shane’s neck and dragged him into another kiss. Their tongues slid against each other again as Shane wrapped his arms around Ryan and gently guided him down. As they moved Shane closed his wings for a moment, exposing Ryan to the cool, candle-lit room for a few seconds before his wings spread out again and blanketed him in familiar darkness.

“Have you done this before?” Ryan asked as he let his shirt fall off his shoulders. “With a human, I mean. When you’re like this.”

“Yes.”

“How many?”

Shane shrugged. “A few dozen. But that’s slowed down over the centuries. I really front-loaded it in an era now defined as pre-history. People weren’t as jumpy about demons back then.” He paused in thought for a few seconds before wheezing a laugh. “The last one was… when was he? I wanna say 1620s.”

“Was it like this?” Ryan asked as Shane leaned down and kissed his neck.

“You mean, did he figure me out and imprison me on a bed in a fancy hotel during a work trip?” Shane turned his head and rested his cheek on Ryan’s shoulder as his hands trailed over his body. “No.” He kissed along Ryan’s collarbone as he reached down and unbuttoned his fly. In the stillness of his slow caresses Shane could hear Ryan’s low, heavy breaths. He drew the zipper down over Ryan’s confined cock and felt its hard, defined outline. “And you? No demons before?”

Ryan wheezed, fully aware of how hot his cheeks were as Shane’s kisses drifted lower and lower down his chest. “No. No demons.”

“What about other men?”

Ryan lifted his hips for Shane as he pulled his slacks down over his hips and thighs, letting his legs tangle in loose fabric. He shivered as his bare thighs sank into the soft sheets, biting back a moan as Shane stroked along his muscle and pinned them to the mattress.

“Two,” Ryan answered with a slight stammer. “Neither for very long.”

Shane placed a kiss just above the brief’s elastic waistband and Ryan drew in a sharp breath. The lower Shane kissed the less his wings were able to cover their bodies and Ryan watched as they crumpled against the barrier and knocked embers onto the sheets. Shane pulled Ryan’s briefs down about an inch and kissed the newly exposed skin, Shane’s dual tongues teasing him. Ryan covered his eyes with the hand holding the rosary, the other grasping onto the sheets as he held his breath in anticipation.

“You’re so beautiful, Ryan,” Shane breathed against him, the soft palm of his clawed hand stroking Ryan’s pronounced bulge.

Ryan opened his mouth to retort but the relief and pleasure of friction against his stiff cock was too much. Breaths were shallow and trembling as he became more and more aware of the hot wetness of Shane’s mouth. Shane tugged his briefs down in one pull, exposing him. A quavering moan tumbled out of Ryan’s mouth as he felt Shane’s warm breath ghost over him.

The rosary beads lightly pressed against the bridge of Ryan’s nose and brow, a cool weight against his hot skin. Shane stroked his shaft and Ryan arched his back, hating himself for how desperate and needy he became over the smallest touch. Shane moved slowly, each touch exploring the texture and curve of his skin – each vein and ridge given Shane’s quiet, curious attention. Ryan’s eyes fluttered open and he looked down at Shane, tensing slightly when he realized how much Shane was studying him.

“Shane?”

“Just figuring out what you like,” Shane said, his voice distracted as he sat up. “What I like.” He ran the pad of his thumb in small circles on the tip of his cock, making Ryan gasp. “I like that.” He leaned forward and kissed along Ryan’s jaw. “I like how vocal you are.”

Shane sat back and shifted lower, his spread wings covering less and less of Ryan. Again, Ryan covered his eyes and grasped hard onto the rosary, hoping that Shane didn’t know just how long he had been wanting this. Before he could think on it any longer Shane took Ryan into his mouth and a whimper slipped out of Ryan’s lips. Shane’s mouth was warm and wet, his tongues sliding over either side of Ryan’s thick cock. They moved in sync with each other, but only at first; it wasn’t long before they wrapped around him independently and Ryan thrust up into Shane’s mouth. Shane immediately placed his hands on Ryan’s hips and pinned him to the mattress, holding him still as he licked and sucked the length of his cock.

Ryan moaned loud and helpless as he struggled against Shane’s warm palms. He closed his eyes tight and lowered his rosary-entwined hand to his lips, biting down on his knuckles and muffling himself. Shane took even more of him into his mouth, letting the very tip of Ryan’s cock rest against that wet, constantly-moving spot where the two tongues joined. Ryan’s breaths hitched and returned in a wave of soft “ah”s. He grasped for Shane’s hair but instead his fingers hit his hard, branching antlers. He took the antler in his hand and held Shane’s head still, the tongues moving against where he was the most sensitive.

Only the tip of Ryan’s cock was in Shane’s mouth, but what Shane was doing to him felt so good that if he would have let go of all his inhibitions he would have been coming over Shane’s split tongue. Ryan bit down on his lip and let the corners of the rosary’s crucifix leave hard indents on his palm, the dull pain distracting him and pulling him away from the edge. “Fuck. Fuck,” he murmured, again trying to move his hips under Shane’s grasp. Instead he adjusted his grip on Shane’s antlers and pressed Shane down over more of his cock.

Ryan guided Shane’s mouth against him, raising and lowering him in a slow rhythm, making him take more and more. The tongues wrapped around him, tight and wet. Shane let go of Ryan’s hips and Ryan immediately thrust up into the sensation. He arched his back and reveled in the sound of his own pleasured moans as he fucked Shane’s mouth. His movements were quick and almost inexperienced in their unchecked desire. It wasn’t until his cock hit the back of Shane’s throat that he felt him tense, clawed fingers lightly digging into Ryan’s thighs. Ryan let go of the antlers but Shane didn’t move away. A few seconds later Shane adjusted himself over Ryan and took his entire cock into his mouth, letting the tip of him slide down his throat.

Ryan wanted to cry out in surprise and pleasure but managed to bite it back as he rolled his hips, shivering at the way Shane’s mouth stayed on him. He never had anyone swallow him down like that before, tongues rubbing against his shaft as Ryan dripped precum into Shane’s throat. Shane’s mouth was warm and his throat was tight and with each roll of Ryan’s hips he felt that any voice of doubt and any threat of regret fell further and further away. Instead of worrying about it Ryan just wished that he could have asked for this sooner.

“Fuck, Shane,” Ryan moaned, hating how any noise he made above a whisper made him sound incredibly helpless. “Do you know how badly I’ve needed this in every haunted location we’ve ever been in? You could have given me this on The Queen Mary and I wouldn’t have woken you up every ten minutes.”

Shane took his mouth off of Ryan, a line of saliva momentarily trailing from his wet lips to the tip of Ryan’s cock. He breathed deep, black eyes hooded with a desirous expression. Reaching an arm around Ryan’s waist he dragged him down the mattress until their lips could meet again. Ryan moaned into the kiss, tasting himself on Shane’s dual tongues and drowning in the warmth of his mouth. He arched his back so Shane could wrap his arms entirely around him, the difference in their heights and frames emphasized as Ryan pressed against Shane’s demonic form.

“You think I don’t love it when you wake me up like that?” Shane asked, his voice a whisper as his lips lingered over Ryan’s. “Those big scared eyes darting around the room as you beg for me. For my attention.”

Ryan drew in a slow, shaking breath as Shane reached between them and stroked Ryan’s hard cock, still slick from his mouth.

“Is this what you’ve wanted, baby?” Shane bowed his head to kiss along Ryan’s jaw. “Is this what you want next demon house we go to? You want me to suck your uncut dick in some filthy basement”

“Sh-Shane…”

“Is it enough to make you want to go back to Mission Solano?” Shane whispered against the shell of Ryan’s ear. “Before that candle-covered altar.” His hand brushed against the rosary and Shane grabbed Ryan by the wrist. “Do you get off on that kind of sacrilege?”

“That’s not…” Ryan turned his head, trying not to think on the mental image of Shane on his knees in a chapel if only to suck him off. It was wrong. It disturbed him how wrong he knew it was and knowing that Shane was a demon should have made it so much worse, but it only made him perversely curious. It came to a point where it was so taboo that part of him started to want it in spite of himself.

Ryan clung to Shane as he was kissed over and over, hands massaging over Shane’s shoulders. He shifted his legs and nudged off his trousers and underwear, finally lying undressed on top of sheets made warm by their bodies. If Shane were human his long, slender legs would have so easily slid between Ryan’s own, soft skin against skin. Instead Ryan’s thigh brushed over coarse hair as his legs were spread apart wide, Shane’s stiff cock rutting against his ass. It was larger than it had been when Ryan had kissed him through his slacks, changing with his demonic form. That or else Ryan just thought it was bigger now that he thought about taking it inside of him.

“Fuck, Shane.”

Shane laughed, the sound a low hum reverberating in his chest. “Second thoughts? We can stop.”

“No. No. Just…” Ryan grinded against Shane’s length, leveraging himself by wrapping a leg around Shane’s hip. “Jesus Christ, you’re fucking big.”

Shane wheezed a laugh, his blushing cheeks darkening and the embers of his wings burning brighter. He dug around in the folds of the crumpled sheets, hand coming back with the bottle of lube. “I’ll go slow.”

Ryan only nodded, watching as Shane slicked up his hand and lowered it between their bodies. Shane looked down at him with a desirous intensity that pinned him to the mattress, Ryan able to do nothing but lie under Shane and be admired as Shane stroked himself. Every now and again the cold lube would brush against Ryan’s thigh, making him tense and shiver in anticipation. His own cock was stiff and sensitive with the memory of Shane’s mouth and tongues.

“You’re beautiful,” Shane said with a contented hum as he leaned down to kiss along his jaw. “You’re the most attractive man I’ve ever met.”

Ryan settled into the mattress as he stared up at the ceiling and the rounded curve of the glasslike prison walls. He watched Shane’s wings burn with tiny points of light, crumpling against the walls as he tried to outspread them as far as he could. He listened as Shane’s antlers dragged against the sheets, and then the sound of his cloven hooves trying to find purchase on the mattress. The rustling of a demonic Shane surrounded Ryan and he loosened his grip on the rosary, feeling far more comforted than he had in a long time. He was so lost in the sound and warmth that Ryan didn’t even notice when Shane stopped stroking himself and positioned Ryan’s legs, lifting his hips. He didn’t even make a sound until Shane dully pressed his cock against Ryan’s entrance.

“Shane?”

“I’ll go slow,” Shane assured him again, his voice patient. “If I were human I would have fingered you open first, but you’ll be alright. You don’t want me doing that now.”

The last sentence was emphasized with a light scratch from Shane’s claws against Ryan’s thigh. Ryan drew in a sharp breath through his teeth at the sudden stinging pain, turning his face to the pillow. The warmth of Shane’s palm rubbed against the scratch, which burned as thin trails of raised red marks formed against golden brown skin. Shane caressed up Ryan’s chest, hand trailing over Ryan’s neck before lacing in his hair as Shane kissed him deeply. His tongues slid into Ryan’s mouth, the kiss warm and rough. It was adoring; Shane sliding a hand under Ryan’s legs to raise his hips and press against him again.

Ryan moaned, his voice first muffled by the kiss before he turned away to bury his face in Shane’s neck. Shane’s cock was thick and heavy against him, pressing in a way that felt relentless. He wanted to take him, he wanted Shane so desperately, but still the rough prodding felt impossibly large against his tight hole. He knew it would hurt but the thought of not taking Shane at this point was maddening. It had to be that night. Shane had to be in his true form. If this was what they wanted from each other Ryan wanted it to be honest, completely honest.

A growl hummed low in Shane’s throat as he lifted Ryan’s leg even higher, his knee nearly touching his chest. Ryan whimpered as Shane grinded against him and his breaths turned shaky in anticipation. He groaned, the tip of Shane’s lubricated cock shoving his hole open. It hurt, the burning pleasure shot through Ryan and forced a loud, low groan out of him. He had been sure that the two of them had been making enough noise in their room to bother whoever was staying next to them, but nothing that Ryan had said or shouted before had been so drenched in sex.

Shane clasped a hand over Ryan’s mouth, muffling him as he pressed in deeper. Ryan screamed and begged into his palm, his eyes wide as he felt like Shane was splitting him open but at the same time it was the most exhilarating sensation he had ever experienced. The claws of the hand. The antlers and wings above him. The coarse fur and powerful muscle of Shane’s legs. It was clear that what was on top of Ryan was not human and never truly had been. But at the same time he was so human and familiar and Shane. Everything from the gentle sound of staggered breathing to the familiar warmth of his body was all Shane. The black eyes were that of the man he had needed and loved for, at this point, years.

Shane was barely inside him when Ryan was already short of breath. Shane uncovered Ryan’s mouth and he drew in a gasp of air, letting it out in a quivering, vocal sigh. Not pushing in any further, Shane leaned down to kiss Ryan’s neck, gentle and adoring before giving him a possessive bite. Ryan breathed heavily, trying to get used to the thickness and weight of Shane inside of him as his neck was marked.

“God, it’s so much.”

Shane wheezed softly, the subtle movement reverberating throughout his body and into Ryan’s. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve never taken anyone… or anything this big before.”

“You're doing beautifully, baby,” Shane whispered as he kissed Ryan. “And all you need to do is tell me and I’ll stop if you want me to.”

Ryan nodded and bit back a moan as Shane pushed in even deeper. His eyes fluttered closed and he tilted his head into the pillow, arching his back and gasping for breath. He had never in his life felt as exposed to anyone or as helpless. It was overwhelming and Ryan could hardly think of anything except that he wanted everything that Shane could possibly give him. It hurt, but still Ryan moaned in pleasure as Shane reached down and stroked him.

Very slightly, Shane pulled away only to thrust back in. No deeper than he had been before, but still enough to draw a low, weak groan from Ryan’s throat. As large as Shane was and as much as Ryan needed time to adjust, it all seemed to be moving torturously slow. Ryan wrapped his legs around Shane’s hips and tried to draw in even more of him. Shane slipped in deeper, Ryan’s whimpers turning into a shout of pain and need. Again, Shane clasped a hand over his mouth. Ryan batted it away.

“Do you want them to hear you?”

Ryan bit down on his lip and whined. The hotel was at capacity, of course someone was going to hear him. And while it both excited and mortified Ryan to think of someone from the banquet hearing what Shane was doing to him, it wasn’t something he wanted to think about at the moment.

Shane leaned down and kissed Ryan’s neck, antlers scraping against the headboard. “You feel amazing, Ryan,” he murmured, stroking Ryan’s cock as he spoke.

Ryan gasped, the leg wrapped around Shane twitching involuntarily as pleasure hit him in sharp waves. Shane pulled back and pressed in again, no deeper, but a little rougher. Ryan moaned “oh,” the cry strangled in his throat as he tried to hold back. The distortion made it sound all the more desperate. The sound made Ryan’s cheeks sting with a heavy blush, Shane’s laugh muffled as he kissed his jawline. He repeated the motion and again “oh.” As it happened again, Ryan consciously muffled the cry in his mouth and closed his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Shane, clinging to him as the base of warm, massive wings rested against Ryan’s forearms.

The two of them fell into a steady rhythm, Shane fucking Ryan loose and Ryan gasping, breathy and vocal at the apex of each thrust. Ryan sank into the full pillows and the mattress rocked against the headboard with the motion of their bodies. Shane sat up to get a better angle, lifting Ryan’s hips even further as he kept thrusting into him. Ryan braced himself against the headboard with the hand that was still wrapped in the rosary, the other reaching down to stroke himself. From the new angle Shane hit Ryan’s prostate, making Ryan’s cock twitch and drip precome. He lightly pulled away, wanting to do what he could to hold back a little longer, but Shane gripped Ryan by the hips and shoved in even deeper than he had before. The sudden change of sensation made Ryan tremble, moaning loud for just a second before he remembered to cover his mouth. He felt the fur of Shane’s legs hit the back of his thighs, Shane unable to press in any further. When Ryan opened his eyes he saw Shane tilt his head back, his chest and wings moving with heavy breaths. When Shane looked back down at Ryan his eyes were heavy-lidded and his smile made Ryan feel like he was prey. He pulled out halfway and thrust back in, Shane’s muted groan vocalizing at the apex of his movements. He dug his claws into Ryan’s hips, holding him in place and he moved in him. Ryan arched his back and gripped onto the sheets.

Shane let go of Ryan’s hips, small indentations left in Ryan’s flesh. He studied Ryan, hands trailing over Ryan’s body. “You’re so beautiful.”

Ryan’s eyes drifted closed as Shane’s hands reached his chest, kneading muscle and rubbing his nipples. He moaned, loud and quavering and ending with “Shane.” Whispered. Strained. Cried. He spoke his name over and over as Shane thrust into him.

Shane put his hand on Ryan’s thigh, holding it against him as he leaned down and wrapped an arm around Ryan. Ryan tensed and tightened his legs around Shane’s waist as Shane lifted him off the mattress until he was on Shane’s lap, Ryan’s cock hard and pressed against Shane’s stomach. Ryan buried his face into Shane’s neck and whimpered, his arms around Shane and clinging tight to him. His hands rested on Shane’s wings, warm and powerful, moving ever so slightly as Ryan brushed his fingertips through their feathers. Shane kissed his hair and turned them so his back was to the headboard. Ryan felt the coolness of the room against his back and tightened his hold on Shane.

Slow, hand never leaving Ryan’s thigh, Shane leaned back until he lay on the mattress, Ryan on top of him. His wings spread out and his antlers knocked against the headboard as he arched his back and arranged pillows under him. Ryan put his hands on Shane’s chest, warm skin against his palms and the beads of the rosary falling against Shane’s side. Ryan glanced towards the ceiling, missing the cover of wings that used to shield him. He felt like he was being watched, or that he could be watched. He shivered.

Again, Shane took him by the waist, but gentler this time. He guided Ryan up and slowly back down onto him. Ryan gasped and braced himself against Shane as he impaled himself on Shane’s cock. They went torturously slow, Ryan’s legs twitching and weak as he rode Shane. His body ached but Shane felt amazing. He gasped in pleasure as Shane wrapped his hand around his cock and pumped him.

Legs unable to support himself anymore, Ryan slid down until his body rested against fur. He groaned low, throwing back his head and bracing himself against Shane’s legs, his fingers sinking into rough fur. His breaths trembled between helpless moans as Shane thrust up into him. He squirmed as Shane toyed with the head of his cock, the pad of his thumb flicking and pressing against overly sensitive skin. Each moan built on the next, until Ryan couldn’t hold back and let out a shout of pleasure.

“Fuck.” Ryan tried to speak the word but it came out as a cry. His cheeks grew hot again as he hoped that nobody heard him. But that wasn’t enough to keep him from moaning, “Shane.”

Shane picked up the pace and drove hard into Ryan, Ryan unable to do much aside from try to keep his balance as his gasps and pleas grew louder. At some point Ryan was sure that he heard someone pounding on the wall but he was already too far gone. His entire world was Shane, the mattress under his knees, and the warm confines of the glasslike prison. Ryan leaned forward, trying to take control again and bracing himself on Shane’s chest, the rosary beads leaving imprints on their skin when Ryan pressed down. The sweat on Ryan’s brow trailed down his hair and dripped onto Shane’s shoulder. He gyrated his hips and Shane’s rhythm grew erratic.

“I’m close,” Shane said, his voice slightly strained between shallow breaths.

Ryan tried to respond, but all he could do was nod and whisper, “fuck.”

Shane wheezed a laugh and reached up to caress along Ryan’s biceps. “Then turn around, Ry. I want you bent over.”

Ryan nodded, lifting himself off of Shane and shakily getting on his knees. He didn’t even have time to consider how loose Shane had made him before Shane was behind him and filling him again. A deep moan. At this point, all Ryan wanted to feel was Shane buried inside him. Ryan tried to brace himself on all fours, but as soon as Shane began fucking him his arms gave out. He pressed his brow against the cool blankets and bit down on the fabric, trying to muffle his ecstatic moaning.

Shane’s movements were sharp and quick, animalistic in their need. Ryan whimpered as Shane’s claws scraped over his hips again as Shane held him in place. He felt a warm breeze and looked up to see Shane’s wings beating, sending soot and embers into the air in a flurry. The weight of the wings drove Shane hard into Ryan, who gripped tight onto the sheets for fear of losing his balance and slipping off the mattress. For the first time, Ryan could clearly hear Shane’s moans, breathy and his smile audible through them.

Sharp claws dragged red raised lines down Ryan’s back to his shoulders. One hand slipped around Ryan’s side and gripped his cock. The other gripped him by the throat, lightly choking him. The control Shane silently demanded of him in that moment made Ryan feel weak and he pressed himself against Shane’s hands.

“Come,” Shane said, his voice commanding through the soft grunts of exertion he made with each thrust. “Come for me, baby.”

Ryan tensed up, neither willing nor wanting to hold back any longer. He came hard, his come spilling over his stomach, Shane’s knuckles, and the sheets beneath him. It came in waves, Ryan’s body sensitive with release and his mind lost to pleasure. Through his orgasmic haze, Ryan could hear Shane gasp in surprise as Ryan spasmed around him.

“Oh, Ryan. Oh fuck, Ryan.”

Shane let go of Ryan’s neck and Ryan buried his face in the blankets again, whining in his throat as Shane kept stroking his cock even after he came. The rhythmic thrusts came to a stop, Shane holding Ryan by the waist again, panting and gasping in pleasure. Claws dug against flesh, Shane’s cock feeling somehow even thicker inside Ryan. It stretched him even further, forcing Ryan to cry out, the sound muffled against fabric. It wasn’t until Shane’s cock was once again painfully thick inside him take that Shane came.

Ryan’s cheeks were hot as Shane climaxed, realizing in that moment that no man had ever come inside him before. He gasped into the blankets as Shane’s legs gave out and he caved forward, clawed hand grabbing Ryan’s shoulder. Shane’s moans were filthy, sharp breaths drawn through bared teeth. A hand remained on Ryan’s waist and Shane rolled his hips, riding out his orgasm.

When Shane’s hot trembling had finished he lay with his chest to Ryan’s back, breathing heavily. He nuzzled against Ryan’s hair, kissing him. Ryan tried to turn his hips so Shane could slip out, but he couldn’t, his movements only making Shane wrap an arm around him and moan softly. He tried to lift himself off and Shane grunted in discomfort, tightening the embrace.

“Shane.”

“I know. Give it a minute.”

Ryan lifted his head and tried to look behind him at Shane but could only see him at the very corner of his vision. “Are we stuck?”

“Yeah.” Shane kissed his cheek. “Demon thing, I guess. It’s been a few centuries, I forgot about it.”

Ryan glanced up and saw the tips of Shane’s antlers. Then he looked to the glasslike wall. He shivered as Shane throbbed inside him, Shane humming in soft contentment against Ryan’s hair.

Ryan propped himself up on his arm and dragged himself closer to the edge of the bed. Shane made a muted, pained sound in his throat before following Ryan’s body with his own, the two of them still joined. Ryan breathed deep, trembling with how much of Shane he was taking and how their bodies moved against each other.

Shane spoke, “Are you-”

“I just want to see you.”

Ryan moved to the very edge of the bed, Shane still inside him. He reached down, Shane holding him so he wouldn’t lose his balance. With a single, unquestioning movement, Ryan brushed his rosary-entwined hand across the edge of the circle of salt, breaking it. All went dark for an instant as the pink glasslike structure vanished from around the bed. There was a cool rush of air over Ryan’s bare back. Shane slipped out of him and Ryan felt weak, come spilling out of his body and onto the back of his thighs. He felt so sated that he nearly slid off the mattress. It was then that an arm wrapped around him and dragged him back on top of the bed, onto a pile of bunched blankets. Breathless, Ryan looked up at Shane, back to his human form. Shane’s hair was messy with sweat and his cheeks were a dark pink.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment in silence, an acknowledgement of Ryan’s decision. Shane was the first to look away, his eyes cast down and an expression forming that Ryan didn’t immediately recognize on Shane: fear. More than at any other point that evening, Ryan could have overpowered Shane entirely. To Shane, Ryan’s regret would have been worse than death. Rejection worse than damnation. A demon’s heart up for sacrifice. This was all something that Ryan didn’t realize until years later in reflection. In the moment, all he needed to see was the smallest trace of fear and he knew instinctively what to do.

“Come here, Shane.”

Ryan reached up and pulled Shane on top of him, kissing him. There were no antlers threatening to tear the sheets. Ryan caressed down Shane’s back, uninterrupted by wings. Human legs brushed against his own and Shane slipped his hand under Ryan. There were no claws, no embers, no dual tongues. Only Shane.

Their kiss ended and the two of them rested their foreheads together, catching their breath. Ryan shivered at the new coolness of the room and Shane immediately pulled a blanket around him as he moved to the edge of the bed and got to his feet. He stretched and walked naked to the bathroom, returning after a few seconds with a washcloth and towel.

Ryan closed his eyes as Shane cleaned the sex off of him. He usually didn’t like it when his partners gave him a sponge bath like that, usually preferring to go right to the shower for perhaps another round. But in that moment he was grateful. Shane worked slowly, his mind lost in thought as he cleaned Ryan off, his actions resembling a monk cleaning a relic as opposed to a nurse wiping down a patient. It wasn’t until he dried Ryan’s legs that Ryan sat up. The two studied each other again, a little more confident in what had passed between them than they had been before. Shane broke the moment this time, leaning down to brush his lips against Ryan’s in a brief, chaste kiss. Ryan kissed him back, dragging it out a little longer before sitting back on his heels. Shane smiled and blushed down at him again, his attention back to Ryan and the room.

“Could you blow out the candles?” Ryan asked. “I’ll clean up the rest of this in the morning.”

Shane nodded and got off the bed again. For the first time since he got on the mattress, Ryan let go of his rosary, setting it on the nightstand beside him. Ryan rearranged the pillows back to their proper place at the headboard. He would have to take a closer look in the morning, but nothing seemed ripped or damaged in any way. They got lucky, he supposed as he lay back onto the pillows and pulled the blankets around him. He closed his eyes and started to drift to sleep when he heard a faint buzzing. From his position, he couldn’t see what it was, but he could see Shane at the candles, his attention turned to the desk.

“Phone,” Shane said.

“Mmm.”

“It’s Father Thomas.”

Ryan remembered the message he had left for the priest and groaned before outstretching his hand. Shane handed him the phone as he climbed into bed beside him. Sighing, Ryan answered.

“H’lo?”

“Ryan? This is Father Gary Thomas.”

“Ah. Hello, Father.”

“Ryan, I got a rather disturbing message from you that I didn’t see until now. I know it must be about two in the morning where you are, but you told me to call. Are you alright?”

“Oh, yeah…” Ryan said, raking his exhausted brain for some excuse for what he had written earlier. “I’m fine. I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Things sounded pretty dire a little over an hour ago.”

“It, um, it was a miscommunication.” Ryan ran his fingers through his hair as he thought. “I haven’t been getting much sleep recently and I overreacted.” Not entirely a lie; Ryan was usually somewhat sleep-deprived. “Things are okay now.”

“Is Shane alright?”

Shane wrapped an arm around Ryan and kissed his temple, whispering so only Ryan could hear, “Shane is fine.”

“He’s fine,” Ryan echoed. “I appreciate your concern, Father. Thank you for checking up on me. I’ll write you again in the morning when I have my thoughts together. It’s been a long night.

“I trust you had a much-needed conversation with him.”

“Hmm?”

“Not two hours ago you sounded positive that he wasn’t even entirely human.”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, we sorted things out.”

“That’s good to hear. Communication is important, especially for those who are as close as you seem to be.”

Shane nuzzled against Ryan’s hair.

“Yeah…”

“I feel like I should tell you, I was compelled to check my email so late at night because of a vision that came to me. I had a dream that someone from my flock was being tempted away by dark forces, that he needed a guiding hand.”

Shane murmured, “I’m ‘dark forces.’ That was me.”

Ryan waved for Shane to shut up, only getting a wheeze of laughter in return. “Well, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“But I do worry about you, Ryan,” Father Thomas insisted. “I appreciate that you want to help your friend, but utilizing the occult is very dangerous. I know that you haven’t taken my advice before in regards to looking for demons and trying to interact with them, but you cannot go looking for answers in places like that.”

“Oh.”

“We’re not being recorded, correct? I would like to speak freely.”

“This isn’t being recorded.”

“Ryan, I really do worry about the challenge that your work may pose to your faith.”

“My faith isn’t in danger,” Ryan said. “If anything, the things I research help solidify my beliefs.”

“That’s good to hear. But you can’t always depend on your resolve. I know plenty of priests who were tempted away from the faith during an exorcism. Some even left the church. That’s why we work in pairs. We need to support each other.”

“I see.”

“And I don’t think that Shane could give you that kind of spiritual support. I know you’re close, but he’s not cut from that kind of cloth.”

Ryan sighed and ran his hand down his face. “I understand.”

“And I want you to promise me that you won’t try to exorcise any demon. You aren’t trained for that kind of work and if you try to you could get seriously hurt. Please, if you really are concerned about Shane or anyone else, I need you to talk to me first. Can you do that?”

Ryan nodded before realizing that Father Thomas couldn’t see him and answered, “Yes. I promise. And I’ll lay off the occult stuff for a while.”

“Preferably forever, but I know that your work has certain demands.” Father Thomas sighed and Ryan could hear him shake his head. “As long as you’re alright, Ryan.”

“I am. Thank you, Father.”

Ryan said his goodbyes to Father Thomas, promising to come in for a blessing later that week. When he finally hung up Shane kissed his cheek and pulled him close.

“Ah,” Shane hummed, “Nothing like post-coital lying-to-a-holy-man.”

Ryan gave Shane a scolding look before kissing him briefly. “I wasn’t lying.”

“I think that not mentioning the demon thing counts as a lie.”

“I don’t think he would have believed me. Besides, what if he did? I don’t want him exorcizing you.”

Shane smiled down at Ryan and adjusted the blankets around them. “I love you too.”

Ryan breathed deep and let his body sink into the bed, comforted by the weight of Shane’s arm around him and the soft steady breath against his hair. The physical tax of what the two of them had done together began to catch up with Ryan. He still felt loose and probably would still be reeling from what Shane had done to him when he woke up. There were bruises from where Shane held him. Scratch marks on his legs and down his back. He was sore, exhausted, but relieved.

His worst nightmare had come true: Shane was a demon. He couldn’t save him. Things could never go back to the way they once were.

But yet he was content and, as Shane had guessed, very much in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. A moodboard of this story can be found [here](https://spooky-chapscher.tumblr.com/post/189860523493/dance-with-the-devil-by-chapscher-while-filming), on my BFU tumblr.


End file.
